Couldn’t make it to Maastricht but still intrigued by the reports of opulent booths? Well, the folks at TEFAF decided to film a virtual tour of the fair. You won’t see all the booths but still get a much better sense of being there than any of the sale reports. Here’s Johnny van Haeften’s booth but click through for more.

The report from Radio Netherlands offers a nice tour of the stands at TEFAF along with the perspective of a Chinese collector attending the fair–and buying a €485,000 birdcage clock.

Artnet has a report by Paul Jeromack:

•  Franz Francken, Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma – The Choice Between Virtue and Vice, has just been acquired by the MFA from London dealer Johnny Van Haeften for $12 million — a record for both the artist and an Old Master painting bought by the institution. The buyer who bought the picture for the museum is Edward Johnson III, known as “Ned,” who is a co-owner of Fidelity Investments and a scion of Boston’s Perkins family. Van Haeften paid a record price of €7,022,300 ($9,458,152) for the picture. Van Haeften had shown it at TEFAF last year with an asking price of $14 million.

Colin Gleadell gets these detailed sales:

• London portrait dealer Mark Weiss recently discovered a lost portrait of Henry VIII in France, which sold on the opening day for £2.5 million.
• London and Munich dealer Konrad Bernheimer presented a Rubens painting of a Crucifixion, last sold in 1976 for £20,000, which he sold for approximately €3.5 million to Boston-based collectors Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo.
• Antiquities dealer Rupert Wace sold an 18th-dynasty Egyptian painted limestone relief of Queen Hatshepsut for close to the €680,000 asking price.

Tomasso Brothers were rewarded for their first outing to Maastricht with these sales:

Tomasso Brothers Fine Art, exhibiting at TEFAF Maastricht (16 to 25 March 2012) for the first time, was delighted to sell a recently published relief portrait of King Ferrante of Naples by the Florentine sculptor Gregorio di Lorenzo (c.1436-c.1504) to a European private collector during the preview on 15 March 2012. (asking price €350,000)

Gregorio di Lorenzo has only recently been identified as the anonymous sculptor known as ‘the Master of the Marble Madonnas’.  In 1455 he was a member of the sculptor Desiderio da Settignano’s workshop in Florence, and in 1461-62 he was commissioned by the Medici to carve the marble lavabo in the sacristy of the Badia at Fiesole.  However, he appears to have been active primarily outside Florence, as is attested by the large number of his works in the Romagna and Marche regions as well as in Hungary, where he worked at the court of King Matthias Corvinus for several years.

On Saturday 17 March, sales included a rare equestrian bronze portrait of ‘The Sun King’, Louis XIV of France, attributed to Etienne Le Hongre (1628-1690), which almost certainly belonged to the most famous art dealer of all time, Lord Duveen of Millbank (1869-1939), and was later in the collection of his daughter, the Hon. Mrs Dorothy Rose Burns (1903-1985).  This handsome desk bronze, with its translucent golden-red patina, appears to be unrecorded so is possibly unique.  It sold to a European private collector, a new client for Tomasso Brothers Fine Art.  (asking price in the region of €200,000)

• Tournabuoni Art sold a pair of Lucio Fontanas (above) for €5m from their mini-retrospective on the stand.
• Moretti Fine Art: a terracotta figure of a lion, dating from around 1715, by Giovan Battista Foggini (Florence, 1652-1725), which is the centrepiece of the stand.  Almost certainly a model produced by this great Tuscan sculptor for a commemorative monument to England’s Queen Anne, it has been the subject of much admiration and sold to a European private collector.  (asking price in the region of €400,000)

Scott Reyburn has a list of TEFAF sales from the opening of the fair late last week on Bloomberg:

• Christophe van de Weghe sold Andy Warhol’s 1975 silkscreen drag-queen study “Ladies and Gentleman,” priced at 1.7 million euros ($2.2 million), to a German collector. A 1965 Alexander Calder hanging mobile, “Untitled,” tagged at 1.2 million euros
• Noortman Master Paintings of Amsterdam: Sold a signed and dated 1730 mahogany panel painting “Flowers in a Terracotta Vase” by Jan Van Huysum  to a European collector, priced at 4.8 million euros.
• Anthony Meier sold the 1987 Gerhard Richter landscape “Kleine Strasse (629-3)” to a European collector. The photo-based canvas, showing a deserted country road flanked by trees, was priced at about $5 million.
• Gisele Croes, who sold eight Chinese pieces within the first three hours of the preview, ranging in price from 180,000 euros to 650,000 euros [In her report, Carol Vogel describes the $180k work as a scholar's rock.]
• Daniel Blau: Dating from the 1950s and influenced by contemporary advertising, these line drawings had been found in the Andy Warhol Foundation. Blau sold 20 of the cache of 50 on the opening night for prices ranging from 20,000 euros to 60,000 euros to buyers that included a Hong Kong Chinese. The booth was re-hung with a new selection the following day.
• Haunch of Venison: sold a 2012 drawing of writhing figures by the Iraq- born Ahmed Alsoudani to a U.S. collector for $65,000.

Carol Vogel gathered some additional sales:

Calvin Klein Browses $1.3bn Fair, Warhol Drag Queen Sells (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

TEFAF Barrels on With Sales of Show-Stopping Works by Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, and Ahmed Alsoudani (Artinfo.com)

You Need a Rubens? Sorry, Sold. (New York Times)

The Message of a European Fine Art Fair (New York Times)

If Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn is anything to go by—and he is—then dealers at TEFAF in Maastricht are spending more time with clients and less time making big sales. Well, big is a relative term in this world:

• “I’m going to plaster the walls,” Naumann said. “It’s difficult to sell really high-value paintings at fairs, though a lot of things do get bought between $1 million to $5 million.” Last year Naumann showed pictures at Tefaf ranging in price from $12 million to $47 million. Nothing sold on the booth at the fair. This year the dealer will show 35 paintings ranging from $65,000 to $2.5 million.
• “It’s interesting that the two most durable fairs take place in relatively inaccessible locations,” said James Roundell, a director of Maastricht regulars Dickinson, referring to Tefaf and the Swiss modern and contemporary event, Art Basel. The latter’s June edition will be the 43rd. “People have to make the effort to come, and once they do, they spend time at the fair. They’re not distracted.”

Liz Taylor’s Bracelet, Gauguin Painting Boost $1.3 Billion Fair (Bloomberg)

•  A stunningly beautiful gold, diamond and enamel dragonfly pendant by René Lalique, the undisputed genius of Art Nouveau jewelry. This signed piece made c1903 depicts four dragonflies with green-blue enameled legs and wings with a large oval aquamarine in its centre. It was originally purchased directly from Lalique by the glassmaker Leon Appert, the brother-in-law of the great French painter Georges Seurat. The pendant will be exhibited by Epoque Fine Jewels from Belgium.

• A rare cup made from a coconut once owned by Alexander von Humboldt, the German naturalist and explorer. The silver-mounted Humboldt Cup was one of a series of works commissioned in the 17^th century by Johan Maurits van Nassau, the Dutch prince and general whose residence is now the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. It later belonged to Von Humboldt and only four comparable objects have survived, all in public collections. It will be brought to TEFAF by Kunstkammer Georg Laue of Munich.

•  A newly-discovered 16^th century alabaster relief by the German sculptor and woodcarver Tilman Riemenschneider. The Annunciation, dating from 1515 – 1520 and measuring 32cm by 21.5cm, was intended for private devotion and strikes a balance between formal elegance and expressive strength. Riemenschneider’s work in alabaster is rare and this piece with details such as the letter from God and the Virgin’s crossed hands appears to be unique. It will be exhibited by Daniel Katz Ltd of London.

• The last available work from a set of six bronzes made by the influential Mannerist sculptor Giambologna (Jean de Boulogne) in 1596 for the Eucharistic tabernacle in the Certosa del Galluzzo monastery in Florence.  The other five are all in public collections or foundations in the United States and Australia. An Angel Alighting will be on the stand of Altomani & Sons from Milan.

• A magnificent example of the work of Pieter Brueghel the Younger depicting peasants working in the field and resting over lunch. The Harvest, signed and dated 1621, was one of a series of paintings of the seasons of the year produced by the younger Brueghel. It brilliantly portrays the fertility of the earth amid the heat and torpor of August. The painting will be exhibited by De Jonckheere of Paris.

• A unique photographic self-portrait of the painter Edgar Degas probably taken in the autumn of 1895. Degas began experimenting with photography in the 1880s, capturing scenes of everyday life from unexpected viewpoints. The intimate photograph entitled Self-portrait in his library shows him sitting by a shaded sculptural bust. This contact print is unique although two enlarged versions of this image are known in museum collections. The historic image will be shown at TEFAF by Hans P. Kraus Jr Fine Photographs of New York.

• A 3000 year-old Egyptian shabti figure which would have been placed in a tomb with the deceased. The Shabti of Sunero, dating from the 19^th Dynasty (c1306 – 1186 BC), depicts the Master of the Horse, a high-ranking military officer, holding his ba, his personality and individuality, to his chest. This 22cm high dark brown serpentinite figure will be exhibited by Galerie Harmakhis of Brussels.

• One of a distinctive group of drawings by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo intended by the artist to be sold as finished works. The Raising of the Cross, in pen and brown ink with brown wash, is signed and was executed in the late 18^th century as part of the ‘Large Biblical Series’.  It will be shown by Stephen Ongpin Fine Art from London.

• A portrait of Jacques-Louis David, the French artist who was the leading figure in Neoclassical painting and an active supporter of the French Revolution. The picture was painted in 1817 by David’s pupil François-Joseph Navez, who became a successful portrait painter in his own right. He produced three other portraits of David, all of which are in museums.  This picture will be shown at TEFAF by Jean-François Heim of  Paris.

• One of the most beautiful snow scenes in French art painted by the leading Realist artist Gustave Courbet. Effet de Neige, painted by Courbet in his native Ornans region during the uncommonly cold and snowy winters of 1866-68, uses an aggressive painting technique and an unmistakable color scheme. This superb oil on canvas work will be taken to TEFAF 2012 by French & Company of New York.

•  A unique oak table with a slate top designed by Børge Mogensen and produced by cabinetmaker Erhard Rasmussen in Denmark in 1951 will be one of the highlights of TEFAF Design. It will be exhibited by Galerie Eric Philippe of Paris.

The European Fine Art Fair 

Art isn’t the only thing collectors gorged themselves upon at TEFAF in Maastricht last week. During the preview, 10,000 visitors passed through the halls. The organizers made sure they were well lubricated with food and wine amounting to half a bottle of wine or Champagne per person and 15 canapés, according to TEFAF’s own press release:

Refreshments were served throughout the preview, which lasted nine hours.  100 cooks prepared more than 150,000 canapés, which were served by 400 waiting staff.  100,000 glasses were used to serve drinks from 1,800 bottles of champagne, 3,500 bottles of wine as well as beer and soft drinks.

The New York Times double covers the Maastricht art fair, TEFAF, with Carol Vogel and Souren Melikian. Vogel adds a few sales to the register:

a 1671 oil-on-panel view of Haarlem by the Dutch master Gerrit Berckheyde, priced at $6.3 million; and a 1937 Picasso drawing of Dora Maar marked at $2.5 million.

She also tells this nice tale of discovery:

Jack Kilgore, another Manhattan dealer, bought “Emperor Commodus as Hercules,” a painting on oak panel from 1588-89, in December at a small European auction, where it was cataloged as only 18th-century Flemish school. Examining the meticulous brushwork, he had a hunch it was by Rubens, who had painted a series of Roman emperors, one of which was missing. Research, including consultations with various scholars, confirmed that this was it. (And the fair’s vetting committee agreed.) A collector then snapped up the painting for $1.25 million on Thursday afternoon, but Mr. Kilgore declined to identify him. “I could have sold it three times,” he said.

Despite these exciting sales and the star quality Old Master works on offer, Souren Melikian declares everything before the Modern era dead: [Read more...]