TEFAF - The Fair of Fairs

Looking around Galerie Jacques De La Béraudière (Geneve) on the opening day preview of TEFAF Maastricht.

March 12, 2010. Maastricht, Netherlands. A light snow falling last night, and cold enough so that you needed to wrap up in something warm, as you can see your breath when you’re outside.

This is the NYSD’s fifth year covering the European Fine Art Fair known to the world of dealers and their clientele as TEFAF, and our fourth year actually present in Maastricht (we weren’t able to make it last year) for the opening day.

TEFAF is, to my knowledge, the largest and most splendid fine art fair in the world. Not having been here for last year’s I can’t say what it was like although they did have a record 239 dealers exhibiting. But this year’s opening Preview Day with another record 263 dealers exhibiting from 17 countries was, as they say on Broadway, a smash.

The entrance gallery to the exhibition hall. The white dots you see on the walls are thousands of tiny fresh white roses like those in the arrangement.

The word some visitors were using was: frenzy. Dignified, to be sure; but nevertheless. You could literally feel the energy spike walking into the mammoth Maastricht exhibition center; there was excitement everywhere in the air.

Talking to some of the dealers who admitted lamenting last year’s mood, we learned that on this very first day – where the thousands attending were exclusively the guests of the exhibitors – there were many sales. One dealer told us that last year they’d made three sales during the entire exhibition, and this year made four sales on the first day (and this was only by mid-afternoon – opening day ran until nine pm).

Because of TEFAF’s location (in close proximity to Germany, Belgium, France and England), and easy access for travelers from all over the world, and because of the vetting committee’s tough standards of quality, collectors know they are going to see the very best items available on today’s world market. Veteran visitors also know they are going to see the best of the best of the dealer’s inventories. So for the visitor whose only claim is art appreciation, and not the power of the checkbook, the viewing is a thrill.

Titia Vellenga, PR & Marketing Manager of TEFAF.

Margery and Jeffrey Rosen from New York.

Countess Paola d'Assche and Victoria Wyman.

Guillaume and Violetta Vedori (from Brussels) of Galerie Odermatt-Vedovi.

John and Paul Herring.

Konrad Bernheimer of Bernheimer-Colnaghi. Bernheimer-Colnaghi is celebrating its 250th anniversary.

Guy Stair Sainty of Stair Sainty.

Nicholas Kugel of J. Kugel Paris.

Saskia Hagger of Galerie Jacques De La Béraudière.

Edward Lee Cave.

Alfred and Judy Taubman.

Steven Stolman and John Andreu.

Clifford Ross.

Another important detail is that this fair, because it is a non-profit, is the least expensive for the exhibitors who are accepted to participate, and that all revenue produced from each year’s tens of thousands of visitors, goes to fund a chair for cancer research at the University of Maastricht and for supporting a world cultural heritage restoration project.

The people watching, I should add, is no disappointment either. We ran into several New Yorkers including Victoria Wyman, Edward Lee Cave, Judy and Alfred Taubman, David Kleinberg, Margery and Jeffrey Rosen, Clifford Ross (who was exhibiting with a photograph at Robilant), To the American eye, it is fascinating to see the crowds from all over Europe, South America and Asia pile in like bees to honey. There are some exhibits, like a 1760 brass clock tower that spits (and automatically recycles) on all four corners of its base, pearls on the minute, literally drew crowds throughout the day.

Oysters shucked and served on the spot complete with sauces.

The self service restaurant terrace, where the selection of food is also extensive.

There’s also, besides the fair’s various restaurants, an attentive cadre of waiters throughout the hall to serve exquisite finger sandwiches, excellent cold soups (such as gazpacho and cream of asparagus) in small glasses, oysters shucked and served on the spot by men and women with two small buckets tied to their waist aprons (one for the unopened, the other for the shells) complete with sauces to add to the flavor, as well as the silver trays transporting glasses of fresh orange juice, white wine and water, not to mention traveling wine and liquor bars.

The various attendees at the opening day preview of TEFAF ...

AXA Art was this year's sponsor of TEFAF. Here in their booth where visitors had stopped for a glass of wine or champagne is a vintage Alfa Romeo; very cool and inspiring wishful thinking.

Under such circumstances, visitors can come for the day and spend a relaxing (and delicious) time looking, viewing, inspecting and, if that be their choice, buying.

Pelham Galleries Ltd., London, Paris: The bed of Charles-Maurice Talleyrand, first Prime Minister of France (after the fall of Napoleon). Talleyrand, who was born into an aristocratic family, had a congenital leg limp that left him unable to serve in the military. As a young man he was ordained as a priest but was really a genius of a politician, moving from the Church during the last days of the monarchy pre-Revolution (which brought him ex-communication by the Pope) to supporting the Revolution, to escaping to America in the 1790s to avoid the Terror (and death by guillotine). In New York he worked in banking, in commodity trading and speculating in real estate (a 21st-century man before his time) and was a houseguest of Aaron Burr. He also befriended Alexander Hamilton, who was later killed in a duel by Burr, and Talleyrand later turned against Burr, denying him the same hospitality extended to him in times of difficulty. Talleyrand was a master at switching sides to save his own skin and protect and build his power base. He had sundry affairs including one with the wealthy Swiss heiress and novelist/political thinker Mme. de Stael, whose money and connections made possible his escape to America. After the rise of Napoleon -- who loathed Mme. de Stael (who read him like a book publicly) -- Talleyrand of course turned on (betrayed) his former lover and rescuer, who forgave him. Looking at this bed, I naturally wondered if he ever shared it with his once-lover, the also irrepressible Germaine de Stael.

J. Kugel Paris.

Johnny van Haeften Ltd., London.

Marino Marini at Landau Fine Art.

Hauser & Wirth London: The bearded and moustached bronze replica of the Mona Lisa.

Hauser & Wirth London.

Applicat-Prazan: Jean-Paul Riopelle, Hommage à Robert le diabolique, 1953, oil on canvas.

Evan Penny at Sperone Westwater.

Van de Weghe Fine Art, New York: the "security guard" is one of the gallery's pieces of art.

Damien Hirst at Haunch of Venison.

Kunsthandel Frans Jacobs.

Marc Chagall at Connaught Brown, London.

Pablo Piccaso at Connaught Brown, London.

Galerie Patrice Trigano, Paris, France.

Studio 2000 Art Gallery, Netherlands.

Vanderven Oriental Art.

Pablo Picasso and Donald Judd at Galerie Odermatt-Vedovi, Brussels.

Marlborough Fine Art.

The aforementioned clock at Pelham Galleries Ltd., circa 1760 with many revolving parts. The trays in each of the four corners deposit and recycle pearls by the minute. 1.85 million euros.

Pelham Galleries Ltd.: La Visite de Louis XIV au Chateau du Jivisy by Pierre-Denis Martin. The Chateau, located 20 km from Paris on the road to Fountainbleau, was visited by the very young Louis XIV, who wished to see the famous gardens and landscape design of Le Notre whom he would later hire to work at Versailles. The chateau was destroyed by Allied bombers during the Second World War and the entire area is now a very large town with no remnants of Le Notre's work except for the remains of the waterless grotto and a pool.