Art, luxury and money meet again at the TEFAF in Maastrich, the world’s most important fine arts and antiques fair that is recovering its long-awaited normality. After the pandemic, it returns to its usual dates and duration and to feed an avid market that is not daunted by the geopolitical and financial instability generated by the war in Ukraine and for which inflation is not a problem. The fair is a showcase of singular works that covers more than 7,000 years with pieces for pockets that are more than solvent.
A Magritte for 33.2 million euros, and a Picasso or a Chagall for 24 are just some of the stellar works at the fair, which brings together 270 gallery owners and dealers from around twenty countries in the Dutch city. Among them half a dozen Spaniards with pieces as superb as a Murillo of 12 million or a Sorolla of 2.7.
‘Girl on the beach’, by Sorolla.
Tefaf.
The fair opens with extreme security measures, after a bizarre robbery was recorded last year in its pavilions, with some Balkan thieves who, armed with maces and pistols, took jewels of immense value in broad daylight. The necklace with the largest yellow diamond in the world, valued at 27 million euros, is still being sought.
In the 36th edition of this portentous showcase with the best pieces on the market and the most powerful collectors, the Russians who before the pandemic set the tone with a checkbook are missing, and Chinese and British buyers are scarce, who with Brexit have seen as their transactions become more expensive by 30%.
That did not prevent an Alonso Cano from being sold in the early stages of the contest and a Tintoretto with seven-figure prices being reserved. Canada’s Landau Fine Art Gallery is a museum unto itself. It offers the most expensive piece of the fair, a unique canvas by René Magritte from 1960, ‘La corde sensible’, for 33 million euros. In the same space, two specular canvases by Picasso, portraits of Marie-Thérèse Walter and Françoise Gillot for 24 and 21 million euros. The same thing that David Tunick asks for a fabulous Chagall, ‘Self-portrait with palette’ of 1917.
A challenge by Fançois Gillo de Picasso, for 21 million Euros
. Miguel Lorenzo
Among the more than 20,000 pieces from classical antiquity figures to millionaire pieces such as a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois titled ‘Baroque’ for five million at Galerie Karsten Greve and another fabulous sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Afghan pink onyx at Galerie Lisson for two millions. In Whiet Cube a piece by Geroge Baselitz, for 1.9 million euros.
Spanish people
In the multinational Colnaghi, based in Madrid, the famous ‘Virgin of the girdle’ by Murillo shines, perhaps the last masterpiece of the Sevillian genius in private hands, on sale for 12 million euros. The fabric was part of the royal collection of King Louis Philippe of Orleans, it was exhibited in the Spanish gallery of the Louvre together with works by Velázquez and Zurbáran from 1838 to 1848. It returns to Colnaghi 170 years after the firm first acquired it at Christie’s London in 1853. Next to José de Ribera’s ‘Penitent Saint Jerónimo’ for two million and ‘Portrait of a young noblewoman with fine jewelry and a black dress with golden embroidery in the form of buns and a high neck with a white ruff’ by Alonso Sánchez neck.
‘Virgin of the girdle’ by Murillo, for sale for 12 million Euros.
Miguel Lorenzo
In the Catalan gallery Artur Ramón, two paintings by Joaquín Sorolla stand out, ‘Girls on the beach’ (1908), for 2.7 million euros, a painting that was on display at the Sorolla Museum until last February, and ‘Portrait of the de Gil’ (1 million).
Caylus from Madrid is offering an ‘Ecce Homo’ by Sebastiano del Piombo (850,000 euros) and a ‘Portrait of Archbishop Spinola’ by Murillo (650,000 euros). With around forty works, the Barcelona antique dealer has splendid Roman pieces and avant-garde bronzes by Pablo Gargallo, Julio González and Alberto Giacometti.
Goya ‘porn’
The Argentinian Jaime Eguiguren offers a ‘pornographic’ and exportable Goya, ‘El sacrifico de Priapo’, for 2.5 million. Small in size and certified by the fair’s experts, the huge phallus of the mythological figure has emerged under an overpainting with flowers that deliberately hid it
‘The sacrifice of Priapo’, for 2.5 million in the Argentine gallery Eguiguren.
Miguel Lorenzo
Mayoral, from Barcelona, is committed to the Spanish avant-garde, with pieces by Dalí, Picasso, Miró, Millares, Tàpies and Chillida with prices ranging from 780,000 euros to 1.2 million and a Chagall for 4.2 million. For only 500 euros it is possible to take a small steel capiñones from the 19th century from the Deborah Elvira gallery.
TEFAF (European Fair of Fine Arts) begins with two VIP days with exclusive access and by invitation. Opening to the general public from Saturday 11 to Sunday 19 March. Of the 270 galleries, 13 are newcomers and ten are joining the expanded ‘Showcase’ section that since 2008 catapults the youngest galleries. The painting of the primitive masters, the classical antiquities from Egypt and China to Greece and Rome, which occupy half of the gigantic fair, coexist with the historical avant-garde, modern and contemporary art, high jewelry. The historical furniture or the design of the 20th century.