|
|
 TEFAF Maastricht 2007, The European Fine Art Fair
Mar 9-18, 2007, Maastricht, the Netherlands |
TEFAF Maastricht gets off to a strong start
Maastricht, Sunday 11th March 2007 - The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) got off to a successful start in the Dutch city of Maastricht on Thursday 8th March when 8,500 guests, including many of the world’s most important collectors and museum curators, attended the private view at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre (MECC). Dealers reported strong sales on the opening night and business continued to be good when the Fair opened to the public the following day (Friday 9th March).
Old master paintings
“It was a very good opening to the Fair and there was a marked increase in business compared to last year,” said Johnny van Haeften, the London-based leading specialist dealer in Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings. Among his sales on the first night was An Italianate Landscape with travellers on a path by the 17th century Utrecht painter Jan Both. The picture, regarded as one of the highlights of this year’s TEFAF, was bought by an American private collector for a price in the region of $5.4 million (£2.7 million, €4 million).
Konrad Bernheimer, chairman of Pictura, the paintings section of TEFAF, said: “The second day of the Fair was as exciting as the first - lots of people, lots of interest and lots of works reserved. This is the general feeling across the board and it looks as if this is going to be a very good Fair." ” Bernheimer-Colnaghi, which has galleries in Munich and London, sold Paris and Oenone by the Frenchman Jean-Francois de Troy for a six-figure sum and a pair of landscapes by Robert Griffier, a successful artist in 18th century England.
Other Old Master paintings sales included a 17th century painting of Saint Jerome by Matthias Stomer, sold by Robilant + Voena of London and Milan for around £200,000 ($394,000, €298,000), Jan Steen’s The Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra, for which Haboldt & Co of Paris soon found a buyer, and Isaac and Rebecca by Gerbrand van den Eekhout, a pupil and friend of Rembrandt, sold by Jack Kilgore of New York. Among the 19th century pictures that went to new owners on the opening night was Holy Spirit, Danzig, painted by the German artist Fritz Stoltenberg in 1880, which The Fine Art Society of London sold to an American buyer. The Louvre museum in Paris bought Head of a Young Boy by Gotlieb Schiek, dating from 1800-1802, from Arnold-Livie of Munich immediately after the opening of the private view.
Modern art
The modern and contemporary section of TEFAF also performed well with the Mayor Gallery of London selling two works by Claes Oldenburg, Liver Sausage and Slices, dating from 1961, and the artist’s 1967 piece Green Ladies Shoes, the latter for more than €1 million (£670,000, $1.3 million). Four bronze sculptures by Jonathan Meese – Napoleon I, Napoleon II, Soldier of Fortune and Saint Just went to new buyers at the stand of Galerie Daniel Blau of Munich. Galerie Cazeau-Béraudière from Paris reported brisk business selling three works by Kees van Dongen, one by Amedeo Modigliani, one by Mark Rothko and one by Max Ernst. Galerie Thomas from Munich sold Zwei Pferden mit Fohlen by Heinrich Campendonk while Marlborough, which has galleries in Zurich and London, had a good start to the fair with sales of works by Richard Estes, Stephen Conroy and the Chinese contemporary artist Wang Keping.
Antiquities
TEFAF has always attracted serious collectors of antiquities and dealers in this sector of the market reported good sales after the opening of the Fair. Rupert Wace Ancient Art from London sold 12 items during the private view, including a life-size Roman bronze arm dating from about the 2nd century AD which went to a new European private collector for a price in the region of €70,000 (£47,000, $92,500). Another leading London dealer Charles Ede Ltd sold a 4th century BC Greek marble stele for around £120,000 ($236,000, €178,000) and a decorated Greek lidded mug made in Apulia about 350-340BC for a price in the region of £55,000 ($108,000, €82,000). “It has been absolutely our best TEFAF ever,” said James Ede, director of the gallery. “We have always had a good Fair here but this year is exceptional.”
Asian Art
The Asian art section of TEFAF has expanded in recent years and Ben Janssens Oriental Art, based in London, sold 25 pieces on the opening night including an 11th century BC Chinese bronze ceremonial wine vessel, bought by a Swiss private collector for about €250,000 (£167,000, $330,000), and a Japanese gilt-lacquered wooden figure of the Buddha, from the Edo period in the 17th to 18th centuries, which went to a Belgian collector for approximately €60,000 (£40,000, $79,000). “We saw many familiar faces on the opening night but we also had an encouraging number of new clients,” said Janssens, who is chairman of the Executive Committee of The European Fine Art Foundation. Vanderven & Vanderven Oriental Art of Den Bosch sold 40 pieces including a superb large oil lamp used to celebrate the afterlife during the Han dynasty (206BC – 220AD), which was bought by an American museum.
The classically simple lines of Chinese Ming dynasty furniture appeal to an increasingly wide range of collectors and Grace Wu Bruce from Hong Kong sold one of her finest pieces, a Huanghuali wooden altar table, to a new, young private buyer from Germany. Fine European furniture also sold well and a recently rediscovered commode, made in Germany about 1786 by G.W. Holzhauer, was sold to the Deutsche Historische Museum in Berlin by the Hamburg-based dealer Frank C. Möller Fine Arts. A Spanish collector bought a silver gilt plaque depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds attributed to Paulus van Vianen and made in Prague about 1610 from John Endlich Antiquairs of Haarlem. In the Antiques and Works of Art section Bresset of Paris sold a wooden statue of Christ, made in the Rhineland about 1200, for a price in the region of €100,000 (£67,000, $132,000).
VIPs
Among well-known faces seen at the Fair were Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, Princess Marilène van Vollenhove of the Netherlands and leading interior designers from around the world. The latter included Tony Ingrao, Randy Kemper and Bruce Bierman, who are all based in New York but work internationally, and Sig Bergamin and Jorge Elias from Săo Paulo, Brazil.
AXA Art, principal sponsor of TEFAF
AXA Art and TEFAF will offer a limited edition service card to visitors enabling them to check the provenance of artworks on international databases. AXA Art will also stage an exhibition entitled Thrill of Collecting II: Plastic, showing rare design and art objects made of plastic from collections around the world. |
TEFAF: Simply the Best - TEFAF Maastricht 2007 Exhibits Magnificent Artworks
Helvoirt, 7 December 2006 - The quality that has become the international trademark of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) will be higher than ever when the event is staged for the 20th time in the Dutch city of Maastricht from 9th to 18th March 2007. When TEFAF opens its doors at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre (MECC) 220 of the world’s leading dealers will exhibit paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, classical antiquities, illuminated manuscripts, textiles, porcelain, glass, silver and other works of art worth over $1 billion, and that total excludes the magnificent contemporary jewellery section.
There will be a superb range of works of art on offer. TEFAF has always been renowned for its Old Master paintings and the London-based specialist in Dutch and Flemish pictures Johnny van Haeften will be exhibiting Pieter Breughel the Younger’s A Winter Landscape with the Massacre of the Innocents. Breughel places the Biblical story in a 16th century Netherlandish setting imagining Bethlehem as a Flemish village covered in thick snow. Galerie Canesso from Paris will focus on 17th and 18th century Naples and will show about 20 paintings including landscapes, religious and mythological subjects and history pictures. Military scenes will include Battle by Aniello Falcone (1607-1656).
One of the most remarkable paintings at TEFAF will be The Anger of Achilles or Sacrifice of Iphigénie by Jacques-Louis David, the French Neo-Classical painter who became the most powerful artist in revolutionary France. The picture, which will be exhibited by Stair Sainty Ltd of London, is the only history painting by David still in private hands and is also the last work that he completed before his death in 1825. It depicts the sacrifice of Iphigénie, daughter of Agamemnon, to appease the goddess Artemis, and has not been exhibited in public for almost a century.
However in recent years TEFAF’s modern and contemporary art section has expanded enormously and Acquavella Galleries from New York will be exhibiting the 20th century American artist Alexander Calder’s painted metal standing mobile White Dots on Red and Blue. The 1951 work will be on the open market for the first time having been acquired directly from the artist by a private collector whose family owned it until recently. Keitelman Gallery from Brussels will offer a bronze by Jean Arp entitled Sculpture d’une ombre dating from 1960. The 71cms (28ins) high piece is one of an edition of five.
Furniture is another of TEFAF’s great strengths and Perrin Antiquaires from Paris will be exhibiting a Gueridon table by Francesco Belloni and Jacob Frères dating from 1800-1805. Its oak and mahogany frame incorporates an inlaid marble top with a mosaic depicting a dog running through a landscape. H. Blairman & Sons of London will be showing a 19th century ebonised wood corner cabinet probably designed by E.W. Godwin.
The market for Russian works of art has expanded rapidly as the economy of that country has grown in recent years and Cohen & Cohen from London will bring an armorial plate produced as part of a dinner service for the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. The porcelain Qianlong piece was made in China in the 18th century and depicts the Russia imperial double-headed eagle on the breast of which are the arms of Moscow, a red shield with St George slaying the dragon. The New York-based Russian specialists A La Vieille Russie will be exhibiting a more recent piece of Imperial history, a frame of photographs given by the Grand Duke Michael Michailovitch, a nephew of Tsar Alexander II, to his wife Countess Sophie von Merenberg in 1901 to mark their tenth wedding anniversary. The Fabergé silver and enamel piece consists of the Roman numeral ‘X’ with a wreath at its centre surrounded by four heart-shaped frames containing photographs of the Grand Duke and the couple’s three children.
The Asian section of TEFAF grows ever stronger and Grace Wu Bruce from Hong Kong will be showing a sloping stile wood-hinged cabinet made in China in the late 16th or early 17th centuries. It is one of the most ingenious and elegant designs in classic Chinese furniture, sloping outwards gently and almost imperceptibly to give a sense of balance and stability. John Eskenazi, one of the most internationally respected dealers in Indian, Gandharan, Himalayan and South-East Asian art, will be returning to TEFAF after a gap of ten years. He will bring a terracotta plaque made in the Chandraketugarh area of India in the 2nd or 1st centuries BC depicting a man and two women, one cradling a baby, in a boat.
Among the many fine pieces of silver on display will be a liturgical ewer made in Danzig about 1650 with medallions depicting faith, hope and the Last Supper, which will be brought to TEFAF by F. Payer Kunsthandel of Zurich. Two Dutch silver baskets produced in Amsterdam in 1770-71 are to be shown by Abraham Aardewerk from The Hague. Jewellery will include a Cartier diamond brooch worn by the late Princess Margaret at the coronation of her sister Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom offered by Hancocks of London and a pair of Van Cleef and Arpels art deco platinum earrings dating from 1922 on the stand of Marjan Sterk from Amsterdam.
The antiquities section will feature a 2,000 year-old Roman marble sculpture Portrait of a Woman with braided hair to be shown by Jean-David Cahn AG of Basel. Charles Ede of London will display a Greek marble hero relief dating from 4th century BC Athens while another leading British dealer Rupert Wace will have an exceptional 1st century AD Roman bronze helmet face mask that may have been part of a cavalry officer’s parade armour.
AXA Art, principal sponsor of TEFAF
AXA Art and TEFAF will offer a limited edition service card to visitors enabling them to check the provenance of artworks on international databases. AXA Art will also stage an exhibition entitled Thrill of Collecting II: Plastic, showing rare design and art objects made of plastic from collections around the world.
TEFAF
tefaf.com |
|
|
|
