“Old Masters are better than buying gold nuggets”

Report from Maastricht’s Tefaf fine art fair

By Cristina Ruiz, Emily Sharpe and Emily Sharpe | Web only
Published online 18 Mar 09

The art market is stable and still an excellent place to park your money. This was the mantra repeated by almost all dealers exhibiting at the latest edition of Tefaf (The European Fine Art Fair) in the Dutch city of Maastricht, the most prestigious fine and decorative arts fair in the world, held from 13 to 22 March.

The general exception were galleries selling contemporary art, where staff instead spoke of “unique investment opportunities” as prices were revised significantly downward from last year’s fair.

“Old Masters are better than buying gold nuggets if you’re looking for something that will retain value,” said Clovis Whitfield, of the London gallery Whitfield Fine Art, summing up the general message. Mr Whitfield was offering a recently rediscovered and restored Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, around 1513, by Andrea del Sarto for €8.5m.

Meanwhile, over at the Marlborough Fine Art stand a Francis Bacon painting, Man at a Washbasin, 1989-90, was for sale for $10m. “A year ago it would have been $20m or $25m,” said director Armin Bienger.

If there was concern about the financial situation it did not dampen spirits in the jewellery section of the fair, where elegant European ladies sipped champagne before lunch and tried on bespoke pieces at the stand of the Munich-based House of Hemmerle, whose prices range from €5,000 to €25m and over.

The bread and butter of Maastricht is its Old Masters section, with dealers traditionally waiting for the fair to unveil their most significant purchases and discoveries.

Konrad Bernheimer of Bernheimer-Colnaghi declared himself “optimistic” about the fair this year and its ability to attract a “constant stream of new visitors”. Fresh collectors will prove invaluable to dealers as many existing buyers, hit hard by the economic turmoil, cash in their assets.

Several hours into the VIP preview, veteran US dealer Richard Feigen had sold an 1882 Van Gogh watercolour, Town view of the Hague with Nieuwe Kerk, and reserved a 1615 painting of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, by the Dutch engraver, print publisher and painter Hendrick Goltzius.

Many dealers exhibiting at Maastricht believe the fair’s unique feature is its ability to attract “crossover” collectors whose tastes span a number of different fields from decorative arts to Old Masters and contemporary art. When asked if buyers burnt by the collapse in prices of contemporary art would now turn their attention to Old Masters, Mr Feigen dismissed the notion: “A lot of people who bought contemporary art will be hurting now. We won’t be seeing them in the market for a while. Old Masters are a different kind of aesthetic. Not that many contemporary collectors have that kind of imagination.”

London dealer James Mitchell, of John Mitchell Fine Paintings, in his 19th Tefaf, said the ten days of the fair “keeps us going for six months”. He said many Old Masters collectors do all their buying at Maastricht, never visiting galleries or auction rooms—which was why dealers were reluctant to miss a single year. “I predict that all the art fairs will die except for Tefaf, and Art Basel Miami for contemporary art.”

A fuller version of this report will appear in the April issue of The Art Newspaper

More from The Art Newspaper
Newsletter and alerts: weekly and breaking news email	Digital edition: the complete latest issue, exactly as it was printed	The Art Newspaper TV: reports, interviews and featuers

The Art Newspaper

“Old Masters are better than buying gold nuggets”

Report from Maastricht’s Tefaf fine art fair

Comments