Left: Entrance to TEFAF Maastricht, 2018. Photography by Mark Niedermann. Courtesy of TEFAF. Right: TEFAF Maastricht, 2018. Photography by Mark Niedermann. Courtesy of TEFAF.


The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) celebrated its 31st year from March 8-18, 2018, showcasing the world’s most prestigious dealers and providing exciting opportunities for prospective buyers to purchase museum-quality fine and decorative arts. The show reported more than 68,000 visitors during its run, with sales activity across each specialty.  Visitors and buyers included collectors and institutions, with more than 100 museum curators and directors attending for the first time, in addition to returning institutional buyers.

 

Held in the medieval city of Maastricht, at the southern tip of the Netherlands, TEFAF Maastricht is acclaimed as the unmissable, grande dame of art fairs, the largest and most comprehensive assemblage of the world’s leading dealers under one roof.

 

Slated as exhibiting 7,000 years of art history, among the categories TEFAF’s 275 participating dealers showed this year were ancient art, classical antiquities, pre-Columbian art, tribal art, arms and armor, Asian art, maps, manuscripts and books, furniture, photography, old master paintings and sculpture, modern and contemporary art and jewelry. There were dealers who specialize in silver, clocks and watches, ceramics, glass and crystal, wallpaper, textiles, metal ware, coins and medals, Asian furniture, and traditional arts from sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. Needless to say, TEFAF is an overwhelming experience and requires the entire week to see everything.

 

More than 6,000 VIP patrons attended the preview (March 8), socializing and purchasing what most appealed to them. The following day was press and collector’s preview day featuring TEFAF’s ART SYMPOSIUM, which focused attention on subject specialists, and panel discussions ranging from “Changing Attitudes and the Ethics of Collecting’” and “Transparency and the Art Market: Challenges and Opportunities.”  After two preview days, Saturday, the 10th was opening day for the public and every parking lot surrounding the conference center’s huge exhibition hall was filled with Art Fair attendees.

 

Left: Alberto De Catro, Stand 181. Photography by Loraine Bodewes. Below: Carlo Orsi/Trinity Fine Art, Stand 379. Photography by Natascha Libbert. Courtesy TEFAF 2018.


It is impossible to mention all of TEFAF’s exceptionally beautiful booths or spectacularly amazing objects, but I would be remiss not to mention a few of the highlights that drew my attention.

 

Starting with the 17th-century Dutch paintings that have always had prominence at TEFAF, Dutch and Flemish Old Masters dealer, BIJL – VAN URK BV showed an exceptional Jacob Van Ruisdael signed painting, Winter Landscape with a View of a Town possibly Doesburg (below). 



Besides Dutch and Flemish works, the Fair is also world famous for offering extensive collections of German, French, Italian, Spanish, and English Old Masters paintings, drawings, and prints from the 13th to the 19th centuries.


One of the more interesting 19th-century paintings was in the booth of New York dealer, Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd. (below). His very large painting depicting a dying Cleopatra by Julius Kronberg was selling for “less than two million dollars.”










Furniture has consistently been displayed and this year was no exception. Only the finest and absolute best quality period furniture ranging from Renaissance to the 20th century was offered. There was a strong showing of early to mid-20th century furniture with emphasis on Scandinavian designers. New York Gallery, Demisch Danant displayed a 1970s Renou and Génisset wall library that drew a great deal of attention the first preview night. Stockholm gallery Modernity showed a Josef Frank mahogany and oak cabinet covered with the original hand colored paper from the 1930s (left).



French and Italian furniture seemed to be the most popular antique furniture, and Luca Burzio of Burzio Gallery London, brought a gorgeous blue painted chest of drawers with polychrome classical figures painted on the drawer surfaces (below). During my inspection of the piece word in the booth was that it was selling for 440,000 euros.



There is always fabulous jewelry. One piece in particular that caught my attention was a 1896 Fabergé hippopotamus box at A La Vieille Russie’s (left). When I inquired about the price I was told the piece was “on hold.” 

 

I noticed an increased number of younger fair attendees this year, and I believe more than a few of them were purchasing. I also noticed booths with fine and decorative arts geared towards younger tastes. Examples were the applied arts and design from the late 19th century to the present day and the modern and contemporary art galleries (right).  Both showed designs, paintings and sculptures, which seemed to be more reasonably priced than other works of art from earlier periods offered at the fair.

 

Above: A box in the form of a head of a hippopotamus. Carved bloodstone mounted in gold, the cover decorated with rococo scrolls and ribbon border, and with diamond thumbpiece. By Fabergé workmaster Michael Perchin. Courtesy of A la Vieille Russie. Right: Laffanour/Galerie Downtown, Stand 612. Photography by Mark Niedermann. Courtesy TEFAF.


Speaking of earlier periods, there was an amazing assortment of antiquities from Asia, ancient Greece and Rome, in addition to the tribal and traditional arts from sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania. From my observation there seemed to be very few examples of Pre-Columbian and ethnographic art offered this year. A few exceptions were New York dealer Donald Ellis, who displayed a collection of masks (below left) that seemed to catch the attention of everyone who passed by, and The Merrin Gallery’s Mayan terracotta vase depicting gods or priests on jaguar-skin cushions (below right).

 

Left: Complex mask. Wood, paint, and vegetal fiber, 34 1/2 x 14 x 6 in. Likely Goodnews Bay, Southwest Alaska, ca. 1890-1910. Courtesy Donald Ellis Gallery. Right: Polychrome cylinder vase depicting young corn gods on jaguar-skin cushions. Maya, 550-950 AD. Terracotta, H. 7.6 in.  Courtesy of The Merrin Gallery, Inc.


TEFAF has shown dramatic growth since its inception and is presently the most encompassing gathering of superior fine and decorative art dealers in the world. It is the best known venue for purchasing museum-quality art and antiques and a fair to which all other shows aspire. 

 

For a list of registered sales, click here. 

Unless noted otherwise, photography by the author.



Michael Connors, Ph.D., has more than thirty years of experience in writing, consultation, appraisals, and teaching in the fine and decorative arts fields. A world traveler, Connors is a leading scholar in the study and documentation of Colonial-era architecture and furnishings of the Caribbean and is the author of numerous books. For more information or to contact, visit michaelconnorsinternational.com.