The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) takes place in Maastricht, Netherlands, every year. It showcases the finest examples that the most prestigious commercial galleries of the international art world have to offer — from ancient to contemporary art and design.
The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) takes place in Maastricht, Netherlands, every year. It showcases the finest examples that the most prestigious commercial galleries of the international art world have to offer — from ancient to contemporary art and design.
Exhibits are heavily vetted and scrutinised for their provenance before the wealthiest dealers, collectors and heads of museums are allowed in to make their purchases. It is a true celebration of the global art market. So exclusive is the fair that buyers remain unnamed and big institutions delay announcing formally what they have acquired. Sales are, however, happening on a grand scale.
Daniel Katz gallery (London) has sold a pair of magnificent marble sculptures, ‘Jupiter and Juno’, by Giuseppe Piamontini (1664–1742), on offer for €1.6 million. An olive wood sculpture by Joan Miró, ‘Oiseau Lunaire’, 1945 (above), which had an asking price of $5 million, was sold by Landau Fine Art (Canada).
Other highlights include ‘Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo’, 1658, by Rembrandt (Otto Naumann, New York), priced at $47 million; and a beautiful Renoir of Camille Monet (Dickinson gallery, London) at $15 million.
Not all works are for sale, though. The Rijkmuseum in Amsterdam has put on an exquisite and aptly named loan exhibition — The Happy Hunter — of hunting-themed prints and drawings (1485–90) from the museum’s collection, reminding us that public and private galleries are integral to each other.
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