Press Release
BUYERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD MAKE TEFAF 2008
A RESOUNDING SUCCESS
Nicolas de Staël, Bouteilles Rouge, 1955, sold at TEFAF 2008
Maastricht 14 March 2008. Major purchases by private collectors and museum curators
have made the 2008 edition of TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) in the Dutch city of
Maastricht one of the most successful in the 21- year history of the prestigious art and
antiques Fair. The event, which finishes on Sunday (16 March), takes place at the MECC
(Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre).
So far museum curators and trustees from 16 countries have visited TEFAF. Among the
Russian museums was the Hermitage in St Petersburg. Others included the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Tate Britain in London, the
Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Modern and contemporary art, classical antiquities, Asian art, and books and
manuscripts were among the sections that performed particularly strongly while, as
always, TEFAF’s unrivalled reputation for exhibiting high quality Old Master paintings
resulted in many important sales. The American artist Cy Twombly bought two pieces
from the antiquities dealers Royal-Athena Galleries of New York.
Ben Janssens, Chairman of TEFAF’s Executive Committee, said: “There is no evidence
that the jittery financial markets have discouraged art buyers and in fact the reverse
seems to be true. Visitors said to me that they see no point in investing in stocks at the
moment and prefer to put their money into art and antiques. What has also been
encouraging is the increase in visitors from Asia including, for the first time, two groups
totalling 20 people from mainland China.”
James Roundell, who is in charge of the Fair’s Modern and Contemporary Art section,
said: “Dealers are very happy with this year’s Fair. They feel that a serious crowd comes
to Maastricht, very different from other fairs, and so sales were as good, and in many
cases better, than last year.”
It is expected that by the time the Fair closes visitor numbers will have increased by 6%
to 75,000 and those coming to the Fair have included more Russian and Brazilian
visitors and the first organized groups from mainland China. Maastricht-Aachen airport
predicts that by Sunday 225 private jets will have flown in, bringing wealthy buyers
from all over the world. During the Fair, including the Private Preview attended by a
record 9,435 people, visitors have drunk 17,000 glasses of champagne and eaten 6,000
oysters.
Among the major sales at TEFAF 2008 were:
Old Master Paintings and Drawings
One of the most important sales in the Old Master paintings section of TEFAF was The
Sacrifice of Iphigenia by Jan Havicksz. Steen (circa 1625-1679) at Dickinson of
London. The painting, depicting the death of the daughter of Agamemnon, leader of the
Greek forces during the siege of Troy, was once owned by the English portraitist Sir
Joshua Reynolds and by 1928 was in the collection of Jacques Goudstikker in the
Netherlands. The asking price was in the region of € 8 million.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California bought a major work by Jan
Boeckhorst (1604-1668) entitled The Snijders Triptych with Scenes of Annunciation,
Resurrection and Ascension from Moatti Fine Arts of London, while a European private
collector bought Vanvitelli’s A View of Naples from Cesare Lampronti of Rome. Among
London dealer Johnny van Haeften’s sales was Aeneais and the Sibyl in the
Underworld, a superb oil on copper painting by Jan Brueghel the Younger dating from
1598. Haboldt & Co from Paris and New York sold four still life paintings to private
collectors including Jan van Huysum’s 18 th century Still Life, with morning glory,
narcissi, aster and other flowers.
19th Century Paintings
The Trustees of the National Gallery of Art in Washington bought Promenade à Moulins,
a watercolour painted circa 1885 by Henri Joseph Harpignies from Stoppenbach &
Delestre of London while Noortman Master Paintings of Maastricht sold Edouard
Manet’s Bateau de pêche arrivant vente arrière, for which the asking price was € 1.3
million, to a European private collector. An American private collector bought In the
Dauphiné by Henry Herbert La Thangue (circa 1886) for just under € 1 million from The
Fine Art Society of London.
Modern and Contemporary Art
TEFAF’s Modern and Contemporary Art section has expanded enormously in recent
years and this time one of the early sales at the Fair was Bill Viola’s powerful 2005
video Isolde’s Ascension (The Shape of Light in the Space After Death), exhibited by
newcomer Haunch of Venison of London. Visitors to TEFAF queued to see the video.
Marlborough Galerie of Zurich and London sold two paintings and two drawings made
by a group of contemporary Chinese artists called 3W (Wei Rong, Wu Erlu and Wang
Hao) all to European collectors while the Barbara Mathes Gallery from New York sold
a Frank Stella sculpture To Heinrich von Collin, Dresden, December 8, 1808 to another
European private buyer. Waddington Galleries of London’s sales included Robert
Rauschenberg’s Palms (Urban Bourbon) and two Andy Warhol works on paper The Poet
and His Muse (after De Chirico) and Hector and Andromache. A European private
collector purchased one of Nicolas de Staël’s greatest masterpieces Bouteilles Rouge,
painted shortly before his suicide in 1955, from Applicat-Prazan of Paris.
Asian Art
A rare 15th century Chinese red lacquer box believed to be the largest of its kind was
bought by an Asian collector from Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art of London and New
York for € 1.4 million while a wooden seated figure of Guanyin, made in China between
the 11th and 13th centuries, with an asking price of € 800,000, was sold to an American
private buyer by Ben Janssens Oriental Art from London. Antwerp-based Marcel
Nies Oriental Art sold his most important piece, a granite sculpture of Buddha
Sakyamuni made in 11th century India.
Antiques and Works of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York bought a rare alabaster figure by Gert van
Egen, the court sculptor in Copenhagen, from Paris-based Pelham and a 16th century
Spanish silver parcel-gilt ewer from Jaime Eguiguren, Arte y Antigüedades from
Buenos Aires. Another American museum purchased a late 19th century English
earthenware vase designed by William De Morgan from H. Blairman & Sons of
London. F. Payer Kunsthandel from Zurich sold several pieces of 17th century, mainly
German, silver, including a drinking vessel in the shape of a sailing boat while a South
American private collector bought a pair of 14th century wrought iron torchères from
Alessandro Cesati of Milan. Richard Redding Antiques from Zurich sold two
important French clocks to a Swiss private collector, one for € 350,000 and the second
for € 130,000. The latter is an Empire mantle clock of circa 1810 which the buyer first
spotted on TEFAF’s promotional posters.
Furniture
Salomon Stodel Antiquities of Amsterdam sold a Louis XVI table decorated with an
enamel plaquette depicting a Chinese park to an American collector. A major German
museum bought a late 18th century mahogany and ormolu mounted mechanical desk
chair made in the workshop of David Roentgen from Frank C. Möller Fine Arts of
Hamburg.
Classical Antiquities
The American artist Cy Twombly purchased a Greek bronze helmet and a large
Hellenistic silver urn, both from the 4th to 3rd centuries BC, from Royal-Athena
Galleries of New York. Another American collector bought an extremely rare Roman
coin, a bronze Sestertius minted in AD72 to celebrate victories in Judea, for about €
100,000 from Tradart of Geneva. Only three coins of this type are known to exist, one
of which is in the British Museum in London.
Illuminated Manuscripts, Rare Books and Maps
One of the highlights of the Fair, the 16th century Negrone Hours, containing prayers for
private devotion, was sold to a European private collector by Antiquariat Bibermühle
AG – Heribert Tenschert of Ramsen. The asking price was € 5 million.
TEFAF Maastricht 2009
In 2009 TEFAF will take place from 13-22 March at the MECC.
AXA Art, principal sponsor of TEFAF
Art insurer AXA Art will show vulnerable artworks to stress the importance of preventive
conservation and safety for collections. In February 2008 AXA Art introduced an online
blog for collectors looking for advice on art protection.
Note for editors:
Go to www.tefaf.com under PRESS for press releases and high resolution images.
For visitor numbers please call the TEFAF press office: +31 43 3838 558 (10am to
7pm). For more information please contact:
U.K.
Cawdell Douglas
Diana Cawdell/Will Bennett
10-11 Lower John Street
London W1F 9EB, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7439 2822
Fax: +44 (0)20 7287 5488
E-mail: press@cawdelldouglas.co.uk
U.S.A. / Canada
NBTC
Barbara Veldkamp
355 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10017, USA
Tel: +1 (0)212-370 7360 X 19
Fax: +1 (0)212 370 9507
E-mail: bveldkamp@holland.com
Other countries
The European Fine Art Foundation
Denise Hermanns/Titia Vellenga
Broekwal 64
5268 HD Helvoirt, Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)411-645090
Fax: +31 (0)411-645091
E-mail: press@tefaf.com
SWEDEN / NORWAY / FINLAND
Birgitta Lemmel
Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 84
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Tel: +32 (0)2 644 31 94, +32 (0)498
12 22 60, +46 (0)705 74 47 30,
Fax: +32 (0)2 644 08 92
E-mail: birgitta.lemmel@nobel.se