Press Release
WORLD CLASS MASTERPIECES
AT TEFAF MAASTRICHT 18-27 MARCH 2011
Mother and child block seat (1983) by Henry Moore, bronze, 244cm high
Helvoirt, 13 January 2011. An extraordinary display of masterpieces will be on show at
TEFAF Maastricht when the world’s most influential art and antiques fair opens its doors
at the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) in Maastricht in the
southern Netherlands from 18-27 March 2011. Among the highlights of the 24th edition
of The European Fine Art Fair will be the imposing and important Henry Moore
sculpture Mother and child block seat, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s superb depiction of his
son Claude, and an extremely rare Greek idol made about 7,000 years ago. They will
be among more than 30,000 works of art at TEFAF Maastricht, all rigorously vetted by
teams of international experts to maintain the Fair’s reputation for exhibiting only the
best pieces.
Mother and child block seat by Henry Moore will be brought to TEFAF by Landau Fine
Art of Montreal, one of the world’s leading specialists in modern art. The 244cm high
bronze sculpture will be exhibited in one of the Fair’s squares. Cast in an edition of
nine in 1983, three years before Moore’s death, it portrays the child as an elemental,
virtually abstract, form as if to represent it in an early stage of development. The
effect of “the big form protecting the small form”, as Moore described it, is
compelling.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s fine painting of his son Claude will go on public show for the
first time at TEFAF Maastricht. Hammer Galleries of New York will exhibit La leçon
(Bielle, l’institutrice et Claude Renoir lisant), which portrays Renoir’s third son reading
with his school teacher. The picture, painted c1906, which has been in private
La leçon (Bielle, l’institutrice et Claude Renoir lisant) (c1906)
by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, oil on canvas, 65.3 x 58.1cm
collections for decades, will be part of a Renoir exhibition mounted by Hammer
Galleries. In TEFAF Paper, a section introduced in 2010 for works on paper, new
exhibitor Stephen Ongpin Fine Art from London will show a Renoir watercolour. Study
of a Bather is a preparatory work for his painting Bathers in the Forest, which hangs in
the Barnes Foundation in the United States. The price will be £125,000.
Rupert Wace Ancient Art of London will be bringing a rare and important Greek idol
dating from the Late Neolithic period c5300 – 4500BC to TEFAF Maastricht. The small
yet monumental 11.7cm high white marble figure of a woman is one of less than a
dozen known pieces dating from this early era, most of which are in museums. It is
2,000 years older than the majority of surviving Cycladic works of art. Although it is
recorded as having been in private collections since the 1950s, it has only recently
been rediscovered. The female idol, representing fertility, would almost certainly have
been placed in a tomb to accompany the deceased person on their journey to the
afterlife. Some 7,000 years after it was carved, it is in extremely good condition and
will be offered for sale at TEFAF for a price in excess of €1 million.
Two amber altarpieces with ivory carvings made for private worship in late 17th
century Germany will be exhibited at TEFAF Maastricht by Kunstkammer Georg Laue
from Munich. These pieces are important because of the extraordinary quality of their
workmanship and because of their rarity. It is particularly unusual to find a pair such as
this. These beautiful works of art were a speciality of craftsmen in Danzig and were
often given as diplomatic presents to foreign rulers by the Prussian court. The
combined price of this pair will be €500,000.
The Spanish dealer Deborah Elvira will exhibit Ecce Homo, one of only a handful of
sculptures by El Greco and the only such work by him known to be signed. It is made
of polychrome wood and dates from the last quarter of the 16 th century. Véronique
Bamps of Monaco will offer a unique necklace in yellow gold made by René Boivin of
Paris in 1945 for Princess Irène of Greece. This superb piece is decorated with
pompons set with brilliant cut diamonds.
TEFAF Design is a separate section of the Fair for specialists in modern design and
applied arts. Among its highlights in 2011 will be a unique set that was made for the
president of the Danish Shipowners Association and will be exhibited by Galerie Eric
Philippe of Paris. It consists of a dining table, 12 chairs and a sideboard designed by
Christen Emanuel Kjaer Monberg and Axel Salto in Denmark in 1923.
TEFAF 2011 will have some 260 exhibitors from 16 countries in nine sections. In addition
to exhibitors from established centres of the art and antiques market in Europe and
North America, the 2011 Fair will include dealers from Korea, Uruguay and Argentina.
Art, more than an Asset
TEFAF shares its view of art as more than an asset with its principal sponsor, AXA Art.
Their partnership provides art collectors with unique expertise covering the full range
of risk prevention, conservation, recovery and restoration, to enable them to maintain
their collections in the best possible condition. www.axa-art.com
Notes for Editors
Go to www.tefaf.com under Press for press releases and high resolution images.
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
Leah Talatinian
215 Park Avenue South, Suite 2005
New York, NY 10003, USA
Tel: +1 (0)917-720 1279
Fax +1 (0)212 370 9507
E-mail : ltalatinian@holland.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@skynet.be
Other Countries
The European Fine Art oundation
Titia Vellenga
Broekwal 64
5268 HD Helvoirt, the Netherlands
Tel: +31 (0)411-646440
Fax +31 (0)411-645091
E-mail : press@tefaf.com