Art News Is Good Newsby Roger Webster and Jason Grant
As featured on Hamptons.comWhatever blips there may be in the world’s economic recovery, the news from The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) is overwhelmingly good. Not only is attendance up 11 % over last year, sales were brisk. As reported in NewYorkSocialDiary.com, one dealer who managed to sell three items last year had sold four before the preview day or vernissage was half over.
TEFAF is perhaps the most important as well as the most glamorous event on the world’s international art calendar. Every March, hundreds of the finest galleries assemble in Maastricht, The Netherlands, a charming, old world city near the German and Belgium borders. In 1993, 27 countries signed the Treaty of Maastricht creating the European Union.
The Fair is held inside the Maastricht Exhibition and Convention Center (MECC), a space that is larger than five football fields. This year there are 263 exhibitors from 17 countries (over 35 dealers from the United States) showing some 30,000 works of art and antiques from the Neolithic age to the present day, which includes paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, furniture, classical antiquities, illuminated manuscripts, jewelry, textiles, porcelain, glass, silver and design. AXA Fine Art Insurers, the principal sponsors of the Fair, have insured all these objects for over four billion dollars.
Perhaps this explains the clamor for invitations to the preview, a chance to see “The best of the best before anyone else.”
With the world’s toughest vetting committee, buyers are confident that they are getting what they pay for. This year, 26 teams made up of 168 internationally recognized experts have examined every piece to be offered for purchase. In fact, TEFAF was the first art fair to institute vetting, the process by which experts determine if the work is what is claimed and has not been more than 10% restored.
An illustrative anecdote on the value of the TEFAF vetting committee tells how Chinese buyers head straight for the Asian art dealers before the make any other purchases. Why? Because the Chinese are famous for creating fine quality replicas. When Chinese collectors buy in China, they’re never sure it’s real. Because of TEFAF’s rigorous vetting, they buy, confident that they are buying the genuine article.
Over the 10 days of the Fair, there will be 75,000 roses and more than 49,000 tulips decorating the MECC. In what is a surprise bit of information, TEFAF imports tulips from France.
New York, Greenwich and Palm Beach resident Michel Witmer, one of the TEFAF Board of Directors and their American Ambassador said, “Dealers save their best objects for the Fair. And this year, we have 70% of the world’s Old Dutch Masters available for sale.
He also explained that TEFAF, “is a non-profit organization owned by the dealers, which is unique. We all take pride in it. Profits go to charitable causes, mostly to the Cancer Research Labs at Maastricht University, which is one of Europe’s finest disease research centers.”
In an effort to support up and coming dealers, in 2009 TEFAF inaugurated a Showcase section, where dealers that have been in business for at least10 years are given a chance to exhibit at the Fair for one year. The same year, TEFAF opened a design center. This year they added a section for works on paper.
The American galleries participating in TEFAF included A La Vieille Russie, Didier Aaron & Cie, Agnew´s, Daphne Alazraki, Michele Beiny, Blumka Gallery, W.M. Brady, Dickinson, Richard L. Feigen, French & Company, Michael Goedhuis, Graff, Grassi Studio, Hammer Galleries, Haunch of Venison, Hauser & Wirth, Jack Kilgore, Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Galerie Krugier & Cie, Kukje Gallery, L&M Arts, Littleton & Hennessy, Luxembourg & Dayan, Mallett, Anthony Meier, Montgomery Gallery, Moretti, Otto Naumann, Royal-Athena, Sebastian + Barquet, S.J. Shrubsole, Sperone Westwater, Lawrence Steigrad, Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, David Tunick, Ursus Books, Van de Weghe, Adam Williams and David & Constance Yates.
With so many tens of thousands of glorious works of art, selecting highlights is a challenge. Some that wowed the crowd were:
Deux Femmes, by Paul Gauguin, which was offered by international art dealer Dickinson for a price in the region of $26 million. Gauguin created this painting in 1902, a year before his death, while he was living in the remote Marquesas Islands 740 miles from Tahiti.
New York based Daniel Tunick offered the printmaking genius of Henri Matisse, his 1947 folio Jazz, a collection of 20 ponchairs printed in colors after collages and cut paper designs by the artist. The folio was a gift from Matisse to his son Pierre. It is the best-known illustrated book of the 20th Century.
The Risen Christ, a magnificent small terra cotta maquette by Gian Lorenzo Bernini was the model for a statue never made. Altomani & Sons, Milan, bought the sculpture as from the school of Bernini at auction for a mere $8000. Now that it’s been confirmed as a authentic Bernini, the price is over $2 million.
Incredible is the 18 and 22 carat bracelet from Giovanni Corvaja’s 2008 Golden Fleece collection offered by Adrian Sassoon, London. It took Corvaja 1250 hours to make one piece. He started with a finger-sized ingot and through multiple refining turned it into 20 miles of thread. The gold filament was knotted and pulled trough the 12,500 holes in a plain gold bracelet, woven much like a Tibetan carpet.
Jeune fille assise, les cheveux dénoués (Jeune fille en bleu) a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani was offered by Hammer Galleries, New York for over $17.5 million.
Portrait of George Washington painted in 1822 by the American artist Gilbert Stuart was priced at almost $7 million, also at Hammer Galleries.
Il Teatro delle Maschere, painted by the Italian Expressionist Marino Marini in 1956 was for sale for $7.5 million by Landau Fine Art of Montreal.
Seated Young Woman, painted by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch in 1916 was available for over $13 million from Munich’s Galerie Thomas.
This Little Piggy Went to Market, This Little Piggy Went Home, by Damian Hirst was at Haunch of Venison, the London gallery for over $12 million.
Madonna and Child enthroned between Saints Bartholomew, James Major and female saints, a 15th century domestic altarpiece by the Sienese Giovanni di Paolo was at Moretti of Florence, London and New York for about $2.75 million.
The bed that belonged to influential 19th century French diplomat Charles-Maurice Talleyrand was presented by Pelham of Paris. The French Empire giltwood masterpiece was in Talleyrand’s country house in the Loire where he regularly received colleagues and visiting diplomats for morning meetings in his bedroom. Its price was about $525,000.
Hancocks, the London jeweler had an 18-carat yellow gold cuff bracelet decorated with a chevron of brilliant-cut diamonds that was designed in 1979 by Alfred Durante, the former Director of Design at Cartier of New York for Elton John for about $72,500.
A 1931, Danish, grand piano, made of natural leather, chromed steel, lacquered wood, ivory and transparent celluloid was displayed by Philippe Denys.
Villica-Caja by Francis Picabia, one of the best examples of his transparency paintings was offered by Hopkins-Custot of Paris.
Some of those strolling the TEFAF aisles were: Judy and Alfred Taubman, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Susan and Michael Pillsbury, Conrad van Tigglen, Axel Vervoordt, Geoffrey Bradfield, Victoria Wyman, Edward Lee Cave, David Kleinberg, Margery and Jeffrey Rosen, Clifford Ross, Ann Nitze, Sydney Picasso, Stephanie Stokes, George Farias, Steven Stolman, Roric Tobin, John Andreu and Craig Starr. Many were excited about purchases.
Among the Museums at the Fair, either bringing their major patrons or on a shopping expedition were: The Getty, The National Gallery, The Toledo, The Boston, Harvard’s Fogg, The Philadelphia, The Frick, The LA County, The Whitney, The Metropolitan, The Chicago, The Minneapolis and Wadsworth Athenaeum.
During a visit to TEFAF, Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission, said, “TEFAF has set an example that the rest of Europe should follow.” She went on to say, “What is especially relevant is that TEFAF has continued to grow through the [economic] crisis. It has grown when other fairs are cutting back or shutting down.”
She summed up, “There are lessons here. TEFAF adapts to its circumstances: adding new sections, changing focus and refusing to be complacent. It has decided: ‘The world is changing, so we are changing too’. This is exactly what Europe needs to do and the European Union’s new Europe 2020 strategy that has just been presented by the European Commission is our plan to make it happen. This strategy shows us how to choose prosperity over decline. We must act on this choice.”
www.hamptons.com/The-Arts/Top-Stories/10306/The-European-Fine-Art-Fair-A-Smashing-Success
.jpg)
