Tefaf Maastricht is the venerable outlier of at this time’s artwork commerce. The Dutch occasion, whose thirty seventh version opens to VIPs on 7 March, is now the one worldwide honest left with a primary give attention to pre-Twentieth century artwork, objects and furnishings. And at a time when most different gala’s (together with Tefaf’s personal spin-off in New York) comply with the cash by organising store in cities with monumental concentrations of recent wealth, Tefaf’s mom ship stays anchored in a historic but comparatively small and difficult-to-access metropolis within the far south of the Netherlands.
“Tefaf and town of Maastricht have lengthy held a magical place within the hearts of the intrepid collectors who make the journey,” says Will Korner, Tefaf’s head of gala’s. “It’s an expertise like no different. We consider the formulation continues to work.”
This expertise and its logistical challenges date again to the mid-Seventies, when the Maastricht-based Previous Grasp work seller Robert Noortman co-founded the Pictura honest. This occasion then merged with the De Antiquairs Worldwide antiques honest and eventually morphed into the inaugural 1988 version of the ten-day Tefaf Maastricht, organised by merchants beneath the aegis of the non-profit European Advantageous Artwork Basis (the supply of Tefaf’s acronym).
The flamboyant Noortman was chairman of the honest for a decade, presenting Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Woman, Aged 62 (1632) on his stand on the 2001 version. He had purchased the portray at Christie’s 4 months earlier for $28.6m. He requested $36.5m for it on the honest and managed to promote it to an American collector.
Noortman has gone (he died in 2007) and so too has that sort of high-rolling resale commerce in Previous Masters, which have fallen out of style with most of at this time’s non-public collectors. Provides of high-quality, market-fresh photos by the foremost names of pre-Twentieth century European artwork have dwindled. Modern artwork now dominates the worldwide honest scene, with Artwork Basel and Frieze as its greatest gamers.
Tefaf’s current makes an attempt to achieve out to American consumers by holding two “mini Maastrichts” in New York annually have met with blended success. The October honest, dedicated to historic artwork and objects, was scrapped in 2021, although the spring version for Trendy and up to date works continues (with the following version scheduled to return to the Park Avenue Armory from 10 Might).
Adapting to altering tastes
This 12 months’s house fixture in Maastricht will function 270 sellers from 22 international locations, bringing collectively, as Tefaf’s advertising and marketing places it, “7,000 years of artwork historical past from historic to up to date”. The honest is working to adapt to altering tastes in amassing. The 2024 version will function 55 gallerists it categorises as “Trendy and up to date”, outnumbering the 52 “work” sellers who current the sort of Previous Grasp and Nineteenth-century photos historically related to Tefaf Maastricht.
For the primary time, the up to date mega-gallery and returning participant White Dice will occupy one of many prime stands on the entrance of the honest. The high-end New York, London and Paris up to date dealership Skarstedt is among the many 18 debut exhibitors. “Whereas historic artwork has been a big a part of Tefaf’s id, we consider it’s important to showcase human artistry all through historical past and draw connections throughout time,” Korner says.
Drawing these connections requires some delicate balances to be struck. In contrast to the big-beast up to date gala’s Artwork Basel and Frieze, Tefaf Maastricht doesn’t entice droves of American and Asian collectors and advisers keen to endure long-haul flights as a lot for the modern host cities’ wealth of top-tier eating places, gallery openings and events as for the artwork on the stands.
As a substitute, the viewers is predominantly northern European, connoisseurial and middle-aged, with schedules that revolve nearly fully across the honest itself. There are at all times high-net-worth people wandering across the stands, and this encourages main up to date galleries to take part, even when solely as soon as, to broaden their pool of well-heeled non-public consumers. They are going to be additional inspired by Tefaf’s choice this 12 months to shorten the honest by three days, saving busy, fair-fatigued up to date dealerships money and time.
However in fact, extra emphasis on the cool and the brand new at Tefaf, whose model has at all times been related to top-quality outdated artwork, does threat alienating its core exhibitors, who’re sometimes paying between €50,000 and €100,000 for his or her stand leases alone. The main Previous Grasp seller and Tefaf co-founder Johnny van Haeften, the tribal specialists Entwistle and Galerie Meyer, and the main Asian artwork merchants Littleton & Hennessy are among the many main sellers of the classics which have dropped out lately.
“I don’t like the best way they’ve taken away the second weekend,” says Sander Bijl, the co-founder of the Alkmaar-based Previous Grasp dealership Bijl-Van Urk and a Tefaf Maastricht exhibitor since 2014, referring to the truncated format of this 12 months’s honest. “We spend a 12 months placing collectively the absolute best assortment of images, and other people like to return again to the honest a number of occasions,” he provides. This 12 months he will probably be providing Balthasar van der Ast’s 1625 nonetheless life A Bouquet of Flowers in a Wan-Li Porcelain Vase, which Van Haeften offered on the honest ten years in the past.
However Bijl is appreciative of the efforts that Tefaf has made lately to encourage teams of curators and patrons from American museums to go to—and purchase at—the honest. Round 25 such delegations are as a result of arrive for the 2024 version, in accordance with Korner. “The essential museums usually are not an issue at Tefaf,” says Bijl. “They’re all coming.”
One other potential supply of reinvention for Tefaf Maastricht is its ever-growing assortment of recent initiatives. This 12 months sees the launch of a particular Focus part on the honest. Much like the Highlight part for solo artist shows at Frieze Masters in London, this section offers galleries with “a singular curatorial platform to delve extra deeply into the work of a single artist or idea”, the honest’s advertising and marketing supplies state. Right here the London seller Robert Bowman will probably be presenting works related to Auguste Rodin’s celebrated The Gates of Hell undertaking, together with one of many six 1905-14 casts of The Thinker priced at €7.5m.
Tefaf can also be premiering a brand new programme in 2024 designed to “entice and interact rising collectors, guiding them towards connoisseurship”. The objective is worthy, however encouraging a youthful, tech-savvy, fashion-conscious technology to attach with photos and sculptures which are lots of of years outdated stays a problem. Designer denims and sneakers are a uncommon sight at this Dutch honest.
Coveted names and timeless high quality
If sellers can proceed to supply and provide really distinctive items, nevertheless, there may be nonetheless loads of life left in Tefaf Maastricht. The not too long ago rediscovered Penitent Magdalene (round 1626) by Artemisia Gentileschi, as an example, will probably be one of many standout sights of this 12 months’s honest. Priced at $7m on the stand of the Previous Grasp sellers Robilant+Voena, this portray by one of many class’s most coveted names has already attracted curiosity from two museums.
This comes as no shock given that girls artists have been one of many few mills of outsize demand in basic artwork of late, significantly amongst US-based establishments. The New York Previous Grasp gross sales in January and February offered extra proof: Gentileschi’s Seventeenth-century Saint John the Baptist within the Wilderness practically doubled its low estimate at Christie’s to promote for $780,000 ($982,800 with charges), whereas at Sotheby’s, an 1816 pastel self-portrait by Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun made $2.5m ($3.1m with charges), the best worth ever paid at public sale for a piece on paper by a feminine Previous Grasp.
“Tefaf is the one encyclopaedic honest left. Should you discover the very best quality issues, museums and collectors will purchase at good costs. However middle-range items are very tough to promote. Tastes have modified,” says the Barcelona-based artwork and antiques seller Artur Ramon, who has been exhibiting on the honest since 2010.
This 12 months, he will probably be providing an early Nineteenth-century inlaid French scagliola-top desk by Martin-Guillaume Biennais, Napoleon’s silversmith, priced at €80,000. “Tefaf is like an El Dorado,” provides Ramon. “It’s tough to get to. However when you’re there, there aren’t any distractions. That’s the attraction.”