TEFAF

Visitors to ‘TEFAF Maastricht’ 2015 will be greeted by a revamped entrance to the fair alongside a new ‘curated space’ of work by post-Modern and contemporary artists to tie in with the ‘TEFAF Modern section’.

New York has firmly reinforced its status as the capital of the global art market with a 25% growth in the value of US sales last year.

Bright spring sunshine greeted the opening of this year’s TEFAF Maastricht in sharp contrast to last year when freak snowfall disrupted many visitors’ travel plans to the southern Netherlands.

Following his severe cycling accident last August, Ben Janssens has regretfully resigned as chairman of the executive committee of TEFAF Maastricht.

Since the idea was first announced in March, news had gone quiet on a possible ‘TEFAF Beijing’, a collaboration between ‘TEFAF Maastricht’ and Sotheby’s Joint Venture in Beijing with GeHua.

TEFAF have announced that they are in discussions with Sotheby’s about the possibility of launching a high-end art fair in mainland China next year.

The hectic preview day of ‘TEFAF Maastricht’ on March 14 in the Southern Netherlands was, as always, a melting pot of the world’s curators, collectors and dealers.

The latest TEFAF market report values the global art market at €43 billion for the last year. The figure was 7% down the previous year, but the fall is wholly explained by a €3.5bn decline in sales in China.

Showing up at TEFAF Maastricht in the southern Netherlands with a stand cobbled together from stale, lacklustre stock is tantamount to professional suicide, the sort of nightmare that has dealers waking up in a cold sweat.

On the feast of the Epiphany, the Tsar, his family and the diplomatic corps traditionally watched the Great Blessing of the Waters on the Frozen River Neva by the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.

IT may sound a little gimmicky, but one of the most captivating TEFAF exhibits this year was an animated version of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder’s Vase With Flowers in a Window by the contemporary artists Rob and Nick Carter on the stand of London’s Fine Art Society.

So what is the most important revelation in this year’s TEFAF report?

THE incomparable TEFAF Maastricht opened to the usual streams of visitors at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre but, unusually for the Dutch fair, an early big ticket sale came for a British picture.

DESPITE the ever-increasing international attendance and breadth of disciplines at the fair, Dutch Old Masters still remain at the very core of TEFAF Maastricht.

IF the mood at the opening of the TEFAF Maastricht fair on March 11 was tempered with a note of caution, this was dramatically heightened after a power cut plunged the halls into complete darkness just as the vernissage was getting underway.

THE organisers of the TEFAF Maastricht fair are inviting dealers to apply for stands in a new specialist works-on-paper section at next year’s event.

ST James's gallery Dickinson had one of the most impressive selections of paintings at TEFAF Maastricht and, like many other dealers in Old and Modern Masters, enjoyed a good fair.

The opening night of TEFAF Maastricht (March 13-22) was as impressive as ever: if anything the quality was better than at recent stagings, there was no sign that people were staying away, while exhibitors in the traditional sectors were quietly optimistic that business could be done.

THIS year's 22nd staging of TEFAF Maastricht, which starts on March 12 with a day-long vernissage, will be scrutinised more than any other for signs of how the international art market is coping with global recession.