The sales were slow and fixed, but hidden gemstones shine

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Since last week, in Mastricht, a Dutch university city about two hours away from Amsterdam, 266 exhibitions have been shown in the TEFAF edition this year, one of the opponents run by the exhibition Foundation for European Fine Arts, which focuses on selling and preserving ancient master’s and monuments.

This year, the exhibition reported the same size as the pain sales in the first days of last year’s release. The highest price was achieved by the plate, Flemish artist Michael Sawarts, at a value of $ 3.8 million The Virgin in prayer (About 1650s), which went to a Dutch institution. Last year, the most expensive painting was sold by a Dutch artist, with a slightly higher amount of $ 4 million. However, according to an official spokesperson, this year, moderate sales witnessed more than $ 1.09 million and more institutional acquisitions more than the previous year. All sales range from 544,000 dollars and $ 4.35 million, which were informed by the exhibition last week for paintings for Italian and Dutch artists.

(The exhibition also shows contemporary work, although this is less than focus.)

Will Corner, head of the UK exhibitions at TEFAF, ARTNEWS The pace of the big sales in TEFAF is slower than other similar exhibitions because many TEFAF fans tend to be the museum’s secretaries.

“We are both an institution and a sales platform. It is not only about sales.” “Contemporary sales occur more quickly, but they are not the same as the scale of success for us.”

However, the new director of TEFAF Maastricht, Dominic Savilkeol, explained during a press dinner on Friday evening, the exhibition is trying to attract the two younger exhibitors and the younger collection in an attempt to develop his presence.

One way to get an early scale of the success of the exhibition is to see American museums that make the trip to Mastricht. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Chicago Institute of Art was just two institutions to attend this year, with each competing dinner as sales on the meal continued.

Among the seven numbers offered, only two were reported by the end of the weekend (the exhibition extends until Thursday). In addition to Sweerts, The Dutch Gallery Bijl-Van Urk Masterpaintings Alfred Cuyp’s Landscape with cyclists on the road (CA.1650S) for the Kremer Group for more than a million dollars.

London -based Old Masters Gallery Trinity Fine Art contains two works of seven numbers that have been not sold by the end of the weekend. One is a painting by an unknown Italian method called Mirabilo Cavalore. It is a symbolic story about the friendship that shows the only male character as she pulls the body to reveal an open heart decorated with Latin for “near and far”. This work was priced at $ 1.2 million.

“People are taking their time to take the acquisitions here,” said Trainy’s actor ARTNEWS In the exhibition booth on the opening day. “Many of them collect the museum’s potential donations.”

Meanwhile, Dutch counselor Mark Jean Van Lakk told ARTNEWS The smaller European merchants watch, but it is closely originally originally any of their artists, making it at Big Us Show shows – and setting TEFAF prices accordingly. This was the case with the Belgian Belgian artist in the twentieth century Lyon Splyarta, which is shown by his work David Zouirner in New York. The exhibition, the first for the artist in that city about 50 years, according to Van Luck, raises the work to a completely different financial level

“Everyone in Europe has the fingers of his feet – it has always been a kind of hidden gemstones in Belgium. Now, our hidden jewel has been discovered,” said Van Lac, who pointed out that Spilliart prices in New York could reach between $ 250,000 to $ 1.5 million for drawings. “This has not heard in Europe. It’s a completely different ball game (in New York), in terms of money.”

David Levy, a Gallery working in Brussels and Paris, was displaying a self -image in 1907 by Spilliart at the exhibition. He said ARTNEWS He is holding talks with an American museum interested in buying work, although he refused to reveal the institution or the price that was sold to him.

Corner added that Corner said that the purchase of activity is from actors who descend from a small group of countries makes things more competitive from year to year. University of the Netherlands are the most common in TEFAF Maastricht, and the second to Germany and the United States. He added: “I was tired of hearing from opponents that the Americans had not seen him in Europe for a period of time.”

Marianne Biski, the New York merchant who came to Mastrecht for the first time this year, brought a special American flavor with Daniel McKini paintings, depicting black women in local places. MCKINNEY, which was historically sold to the American museums and together, was shown, along with the drawings by Edward Hopper. Bosque said that there is already a long waiting list of gathering enthusiasts for McKini’s business, which has sold between $ 70,000 to $ 120,000. (The entire cabin was sold before the exhibition started, according to Boesky.)

Merchants said the Americans are the key to success in the Tefaf Maastricht. “People wake up when American museums are interested,” Van Lac.