TEFAF Maastricht 2024 Closing Sales Release

A TRIUMPHANT TEFAF 2024 CONCLUDES

• Seven-figure sales reported by exhibitors
• Major institutional sales across all collecting categories
• Growth in international private collectors

Maastricht — March 15, 2024: As TEFAF Maastricht 2024 drew to a close, the consensus from its exhibitors was that the fair had returned to its heyday in its 37^th edition. Over the eight-day fair close to 50,000 visitors flocked to view and buy over 7,000 years of art history, presented by 270 exhibitors from 22 countries.

International private collectors were out in force with sales of works of art destined to join collections around the world. Also attending in high numbers were TEFAF’s museum connections with 300 museum directors, 650 curators and 40 patron groups scrutinizing the aisles for potential acquisitions.

TEFAF President, Hidde van Seggelen, summarized the fair as follows, “TEFAF Maastricht 2024 has demonstrated the incredible ability of art to unite communities and art enthusiasts of all ages. We are humbled by the overwhelming response to this year’s TEFAF and would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors, partners and exhibitors for their continued support. In particular we thank AXA XL which has been an unwavering supporter of the fair for the past 20 years and we look forward to 2025 with great anticipation.”

As a foundation, TEFAF places great importance on education and this year over 1,000 visitors attended its programming talks. 10 invited emerging museum professionals also gained insights and valuable networking on a five-day Curator Course, created to enable the talent of tomorrow to learn from the international community that comes together annually at TEFAF.

A number of themes and trends developed throughout the fair:

Juxtaposing the old and the new

Aronson Delftware commissioned Whispers of Time by Anna Volkova, who created two dazzling sculptures of delicate porcelain flowers set within 17^th century delftware fragments. Both sold to private collectors for six figure amounts. Charles Ede was another exhibitor collaborating with fellow exhibitor, Sean Kelly, to display ancient art displayed on contemporary furniture designed by Gloria Cortina in the fair’s new Focus section, created to coalesce pioneering artists of different mediums and periods under one banner (image below).

Female artists

With International Women’s Day falling on the fair’s preview, it was no surprise to see female artists front and center for many galleries. Rob Smeets Gallery chose to feature predominantly female artists with works destined for both to private collections and North American museums. Paul Smeets commented that “this was one of the best fairs ever for the gallery”. Bijl-Van Urk Masterpaintings presented a “Wall of Ladies” selling works of art including Study of a Youth by Michaelina Wautier.

New collectors

TEFAF is well known for its big-ticket sales and this year was no different with multiple seven-figure sales reported. Yet TEFAF is first and foremost about quality and provenance and exceptional works of art can be acquired at a more accessible price point. This was highlighted for the first time this year through the TEFAF Insider’s Collecting Guide, which drew attention to exhibits priced at under €20,000. Alessandra di Castro was one of 56 exhibitors featured in this initiative selling a Murano glass vase originally presented at the 1934 Venice Biennale to a female collector from the US.

Cultural heritage and preservation

In light of geo-political events, cultural preservation was high on the agenda for discussion and the fair’s inaugural TEFAF Summit saw an emotional audience hear of the efforts made by museum professionals at times of crises to safeguard their homelands’ rich cultural heritage, reminding all those present that the preservation of cultural heritage is second only to that of human life.

Sales summary

Within minutes of opening the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam announced that it had acquired the only signed painting by Gesina ter Borch (1631-1690), a member of one of the Netherlands’ most important artistic families of the 17^th century. It was purchased from Zebregs&Röell, a former Showcase exhibitor participating in the main fair for the first time in 2024.

Sales taking place after the preview included the following (note to editors - earlier preview sales are outlined in the press release of March 11 here):

Antiques

Deborah Elvira made four sales to museums including to the Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu in Poland. Sales to private collectors included a 16^th century wrought and painted iron Saint Dominic processional cross, sold for a five-figure sum.

Libraire Camille Sourget reported over half its sales were to new clients including a widely coveted and highly visual book on natural history and birds by François Levaillant, attracted numerous interested parties, selling for close to €100,000.

Alessandra Di Castro made 12 sales, among them an imaginary view of Ancient Rome by Armando Brasini, acquired by a French private collector.

Koopman sold the personal seal of Admiral Lord Nelson to a private collector and commented that “clients were aggressively chasing the top objects”.

La Pendulerie sold 15 clocks of which one, a vase shaped mantel clock, went to a US collector for a high six-figure sum. The only other known clock of its type is in the Kremlin Museum.

Prahlad Bubbar sold two portraits of the Maharani of Indore who, with her husband the Maharaja, was at the forefront of 1930s society in Paris and New York. Avid collectors, the couple commissioned the finest art and design of their day, but she tragically died aged 23 and he ceased collecting thereafter. The portraits were acquired by a private collector and an important American institution respectively.

São Roque reported meeting new clients at the fair and attracted a great deal of interest from museums. It sold its Safavid 17^th century mirror to the Aga Khan Foundation in Toronto for around €200,000.

Helga Matzke reported seeing younger visitors with interest in antiques. Among a number of sales was an eye-catching salt cellar depicting the Passion of Christ with Sybils and Prophets, sold to a Polish museum.

Univers du Bronze attracted a lot of interest for its collection of works by Hubert de Gall. It sold two of the original cast edition of eight L’Eternal Printemps, a 600kg bronze cabinet, amongst other pieces.

Adrian Sassoon reported sales of top end pieces to collectors of Old Masters along with a number of sales to visitors from the local area. His flagship piece, Junko Mori’s Propagation Project: Textured Leaf Wave, 2023, sold to an American private collector who eventually plans to donate it to a major US museum.

Galerie Sismann made two important sales to the Fondation Gandur and the Musée Sint-Janshospitaal in Bruges.

Waddington Custot confirmed multiple six-figure sales including works by Barry Flanagan, Bernar Venet and Fabienne Verdier.

Tóth Ikonen, celebrating the gallery’s 50^th anniversary at TEFAF Maastricht, sold every day of the fair including to new clients, young collectors and first time TEFAF visitors. The gallery sold around 20 icons destined for collections in Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, including a striking Orthodox Travelling Triptych and an icon depicting the meeting of Joachim and Anna (parents of Mary).

No visit to TEFAF would be complete without venerating some of the spectacular Delftware. At Aronson Delftware’s stand, a magnificent blue and white Pyramidal Flower, previously owned by the British fashion photographer Cecil Beaton sold for around €300,000.

Ancient Art

Charles Ede reported sales of nearly half its stand including two highlights: a Greek red-figure plastic vase by Sotades from c.450 BC, to a US private collector, and an elegant Hellenistic draped marble female, to a European collector. The gallery made sales every day of the fair with three six-figure sales and some to new clients.

Ariadne returned to TEFAF after nearly a quarter of a century, advising of interest in its works from a number of institutions. The gallery’s sales included a group of Egyptian vessels priced at €35,000 each and a Roman marble head priced at €95,000.

Paintings

Describing TEFAF “an extraordinary fair...both in terms of excellence and quality” Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art” sold a total of 13 paintings including an important work by British painter and designer Sir Edward Burne-Jones, a leading light of the English Pre-Raphaelite movement and a self-portrait by Italian artist Pierre Troubetzkoy.

David Tunick, Inc. sold multiple works, including three by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, with two further on approval to private collectors and a museum.

Madrid-based Caylus Gallery reported strong sales, among them Portrait of Infanta Catalina Micaela, Duchess of Savoy by Spanish painter Alonso Sánchez Coello and Annunciation from the workshop of El Greco, both sold to private collections with asking prices of €150,000.

First-time exhibitor, the New Orleans based gallery M.S. Rau, made some significant sales of works by French painters Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Henri Martin in addition to the headline sale of Tête de Paysanne à la Coiffe Blanche by Van Gogh.

Matteo Salamon sold Crucifixion with Two Angels c.1360 by Italian painter Andrea Bonaiuti for a five-figure sum to a new Swiss private collector who is founding his own museum.

Weiss Gallery sold its highlight, a magnificent portrait of Sir Edward Turner by the 17^th century English painter John Michael Wright to a private collector for an undisclosed six-figure amount.

Colnaghi announced the sale of the Deposition from the Cross by Portuguese painter Domingos António de Sequeira, which received much international interest and is set to return to its native Portugal and is believed to have been acquired by a private collector with intentions for the work to be displayed to the public.

London-based Dickinson sold a charming trompe l’oeil of Laughing Boy by German painter Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger painted in part to challenge the recently invented medium of photography. It sold for close to €120,000 to a European private collector.

Caretto & Occhinegro sold a 16^th century triptych of The Transfiguration of Christ by Belgian painter and sculptor Pieter Coecke Van Aelst to a private collector from the Netherlands for around €850,000. It is thought that Van Aelst might have been inspired by the Transfiguration of Bellini which he would have seen in Venice on his return journey from Byzantium to the Netherlands.

Modern & Contemporary Art, and Design

Geneva-based Bailly Gallery sold well including its most important work, Femme au Chapeau, by Dutch-French painter Kees van Dongen, for a seven-figure sum to a private European collector alongside six further works to private collectors in the Belgium, Germany, Italy and the US.

White Cube demonstrated the strength of the contemporary art section at TEFAF Maastricht. Among several sales were works by English arist Tracey Emin, German artist Imi Knoebel and German painter and sculptor Georg Baselitz, all selling for between £300,000 and $525,000.

Alon Zakaim sold La Liseuse II by Lithuanian sculptor Jacques Lipchitz to a private collector, which had an asking price of €970,000 in addition to a work by Renoir.

Viennese gallery bel etage sold Modell London – 18 chairs designed by Portois & Fix – to a private collector in Asia for around €65,000.

Swiss-based Galerie Karsten Grève specializing in postwar and contemporary art sold works by American artist Kathleen Jacobs who is finally attracting the international recognition she deserves, in addition to Landschaft mit Baum, ca 1893 by Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler to a major European collector with a public space for €200,000.

Galerie Thomas Salis sold L' Anier de Scheveningen by Dutch-French painter Kees van Dongen, considered to be one of the most impressive paintings of the artist's post-fauvist period, to a private European collector as well as Bright Sky behind Apple Tree by German painter Paula Modersohn-Becker to a US collector who will donate it to an American museum.

Mayoral, a gallery with spaces in Barcelona and Paris specializing in 20^th and 21^st century art sold Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida’s Lurra G-257 to a French private collector.

Belgian gallery Pierre Marie Giraud sold a glass work Japanese artist Yoichi Ohina for around €60,000 and Bassin by French ceramicist Jean Girel to a private collector for around €12,000.

Templon reported multiple sales in the five and six figures including works by Belgian artist Antoine Roegiers, Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota, Belgian visual artist Hans Op de Beeck, Belgian artist Jan Van Imschoot, French artist Philippe Cognée, and American painter Philip Pearlstein.

Works on Paper

Agnews Works on Paper sold several works by Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani including Tête et épaules de face, Homme nu de face, bras écartés and Tête et épaules de face avec frange, all to private collectors.

Nicolaas Teeuwisse made a major sale to the Rjiksmuseum which acquired The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, an extremely rare drawing by Dutch painter Gerrit Pietersz.

Masters Drawings specialist Colnaghi Elliott made several sales between the price range of €5,000 to €60,000, one of which was confirmed to a museum.

German gallery Utermann sold Femme au tablier by Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso for almost €2 million to an American private collection in addition to a watercolor by German painter and graphic designer Ernst Wilhelm Nay, sold for €125,000 to a German private collector.

Vienna-based Wienerroither & Kohlbacher sold several works by Austrian artists including the previously lost The Fur Collar by Gustav Klimt for €290,000 and Female Allegory with bay branch by Koloman Moser for €36,000, both to Swiss private collectors.

The 38^th edition of TEFAF Maastricht will take place in March 2025, exact dates to be confirmed. TEFAF New York takes place May 10-14 2024 at the Park Avenue Armory.

Imagery of TEFAF Maastricht 2024 can be accessed for editorial use here.

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TEFAF and AXA XL, its Lead Partner, share the view that there's more to art than meets the eye. Learn more about AXA XL here.

ABOUT TEFAF

TEFAF is a not-for-profit foundation that champions expertise and diversity in the global art community, evidenced in the exhibitors selected for its two fairs, which take place annually in Maastricht and New York. TEFAF acts as an expert guide for both private and institutional collectors, which inspires lovers and buyers of art everywhere.

ABOUT TEFAF MAASTRICHT

TEFAF Maastricht is widely regarded as the world’s premier fair for fine art, antiques, and design. Featuring over 270 prestigious dealers from some 20 countries, TEFAF Maastricht is a showcase for the finest art works currently on the market. Alongside the traditional areas of Old Master paintings, antiques, and classical antiquities that cover approximately half of the fair, you can also find modern and contemporary art, photography, jewelry, 20th century design, and works on paper.

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