Brafa, Belgium's premier art and antiques fair, is one of the few such events to actually grow this year. Its 71st edition, which runs from 25 to 1 February following two preview days, boasts 147 exhibitors, 23 of them new. It has expanded physically too, now incorporating a third hall, which houses a range of eateries, from an oyster bar to fine dining.
Held in 1930s Brussels Expo convention centre, in the north of the Belgian capital, its location "is very good for Flemish buyers, who are major collectors: they can come in on the motorway, park easily and not get snarled up in Brussels traffic,” noted one exhibitor at yesterday's Collectors' Preview (23 February).
While most specialities are covered, comprising design, jewellery, tribal art and archaeology, the main thrust is painting, from Old Masters to Modern art. Inevitably, Belgian artists are featured widely, including Hans Op de Beeck, Joseph Lacasse, Paul Delvaux and many others. Thickly impastoed works by Bram Bogart are showcased throughout the fair, notably at Whitford Fine Art and Samuel Vanhoegaerden among many others. Early 20th-century French artists are much in evidence: Serge Poliakoff, Victor Vasarely, Bernard Buffet and swathes of post-Impressionist names. With Paris just an hour and a half away by train, French buyers also find it easy to visit Brafa.
Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of an Old Man (around 1609), shown by Klaas Muller at Brafa 2026
Courtesy of Brafa © Luk Vander Plaetse
In the Old Master section, a stand-out is the newly rediscovered Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of an Old Man, about 1609, shown by Klaas Muller, who is also the Brafa chairman. Used as a model for other works, the portrait is by the hand of Rubens, according to Muller, who found it at auction two years ago and recognised it as by the artist. It is priced at over €1m. Evert Douwes has a group of Rembrandt etchings including Self-Portrait in a Cap, Wide-Eyed and Open-Mouthed, 1630.
The fair opened with a splashy and very social dinner, not terribly conducive to buying, but Brafa is a long fair—nine days—and on the opening day dealers were confident that interest would be converted into sales through the week.
Among early sales was the woolly mammoth head from Siberia, around 50,000 years old and tagged at €45,000, which Stone gallery placed immediately with a private European collector. However “Baby Jane”, a dinosaur head offered by Grusenmeyer-Woliner and beautifully mounted on an outside wall, did not sell immediately. Its whisper price is in the region of €500,000 to €600,000 but it had previously appeared at a Christie’s auction three years ago, where it had failed to sell.
Greta Meert quickly sold a large dimpled white work by Enrico Castellani to a European museum at about €500,000, and also waved goodbye to a small work by the conceptual artist Edith Dekyndt. The French dealer Nicolas Bourriaud, among a number of sales, placed a large bronze bison by Jacq Orlande Sinapi.
A new exhibitor is the Dusseldorf gallery Beck and Eggeling, showing classic modern work by Heinz Mack, Max Ernst, Manolo Valdés and others. Director Katja Ott said the gallery is a longtime exhibitor at Tefaf Maastricht. "For years Brafa had also asked us to exhibit here, so this year we decided to take the plunge. We would like to reach more Belgian collectors, which is one reason we have made the decision to participate." While on the second day the gallery had not yet finalised any sales, she was very optimistic. “As we say in German, ‘the music is good’, we have lots of interest and I am sure the fair will end well for us.”
