{"id":1820148,"date":"2026-03-11T13:29:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1820148"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:29:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:29:35","slug":"tefaf-revs-up-for-its-maastricht-edition-undaunted-by-global-unrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1820148","title":{"rendered":"TEFAF Revs Up for Its Maastricht Edition, Undaunted by Global Unrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/March13-JorgeWelsh-208-LoraineBodewes-3.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0This story originally appeared in\u00a0On Balance,\u00a0<\/em>the ARTnews\u00a0newsletter about the art market and beyond.\u00a0Sign up here<\/em>\u00a0to receive it every Wednesday.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\tNew York Old Master prints and drawings dealer David Tunick recently tallied up exactly how much time he has spent attending the TEFAF art fair at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre in the Netherlands, about two hours from Amsterdam. With a vaunted selection and vetting process, TEFAF is known as one of the top events of its kind worldwide.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m just beginning my 60th year in the art business and my 26th year at TEFAF for two weeks or more, so I\u2019ve spent a full year of my life here,\u201d Tunick said, adding, \u201cIt\u2019s always a pleasure and a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEstablished in 1988 and organized by the European Fine Art Foundation (which also began organizing a New York edition in 2016), the fair this year features 276 dealers from 24 countries, offering treasures from over 7,000 years of art history. Unlike most fairs, TEFAF Maastricht stretches out over a full six days, and dealers point out that attendance doesn\u2019t wane. The massive floral displays and the oyster shuckers at the VIP previews are legendary, and top museums\u2019 trustees are always in attendance.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut while the fair has been in the works, some collectors may have found their plans disrupted when, late last month, the US launched its latest war of choice in Iran. Dealers differ on whether the war will hurt the fair in any way.\u00a0New York Old Master dealer Nicholas Hall suggested in an email that it will make \u201clittle to no difference. Middle Eastern buying in the paintings field at any rate has always been patchy at best.\u201d Ben Evans of Landau Fine Art, founded in 1987 in Montreal and now also in Meggen, Switzerland, was fairly sanguine, saying, \u201cWe have certainly been very worried about the conflict, but there remains an enormous appetite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBill Rau, owner and CEO of M. S. Rau, of New Orleans, was a bit more apprehensive. \u201cI think where it\u2019s going to hurt the fair is not the mood or whether people are feeling comfortable selling something,\u201d he said, speaking by phone from Maastricht last week, as Iran targeted the UAE with drone strikes and missiles.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s going to hurt in the logistics,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe Dubai airport is one of the busiest in the world. It\u2019s closed. Any Middle Eastern person, if they are not already in Europe, is not coming. But also, if someone comes from Japan they might fly through Dubai or Abu Dhabi. We sold a Monet last year to a gentleman from Dubai and I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s coming or not. I don\u2019t think Louvre Abu Dhabi is going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Galerie Marcilhac\u2019s display at TEFAF Maastricht 2025.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tTEFAF head of fairs Will Korner noted in an emailed statement, \u201cThe international art market is accustomed to navigating periods of global uncertainty and has historically shown resilience even during moments of geopolitical tension. Of course, we recognise the seriousness of the situation and the wider uncertainty it creates. At this stage, however, we remain confident and have not seen any clear indication that market activity has slowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the record, he added, \u201cA group from Louvre Abu Dhabi is confirmed to attend the fair.\u201d And, as of Tuesday, the Dubai Airport has reopened.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey\u2019ll have plenty to see when they do. A few days before the fair\u2019s public opening, Tunick spoke excitedly to me about some of the works he would offer at the event, which he compared to \u201ca museum for sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re showing a Modigliani that I have kept track of since I first saw it on the cover of a Sotheby\u2019s auction catalogue in 1972,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have afforded it then but I recently managed to get together with the owners and told them, \u2018You might have something that I\u2019ve wanted for 50 years.\u2019\u201d The price for the work is in the middle seven figures.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s also bringing a Degas self-portrait from 1857 that is a mix of drypoint, etching, and hand inking. \u201cWhile far from the most expensive thing in the stand,\u201d he said, \u201cit is one of the finest works of art we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d That piece is priced in the middle six figures.<\/p>\n

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Edgar Degas, Autoportrait (Self-Portrait)<\/em>, 1857, on offer from David Tunick, New York.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tHall, the New York Old Master dealer, heaped praise on the fair. \u201cTEFAF is a must because it is without doubt the most important fair for pre-1914 paintings, drawings, sculpture, furniture and the decorative arts in the world,\u201d he told ARTnews<\/em> in an email. \u201cDealers set aside their most interesting finds over the year for this event. The presentation is interesting and imaginative as dealers are all competing for the collectors\u2019 attention and the visual spectacle is in and of itself worth the trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHighlights from Hall\u2019s offerings include pieces by French genre painter Louis-L\u00e9opold Boilly (a canvas unseen for over a century); Baroque French landscapist Claude Lorrain; 19th-century German Realist painter Adolph Menzel; and Baroque painter Salvator Rosa (the artist\u2019s only known work on copper). Exceptionally striking is Bernardo Daddi\u2019s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Peter and Paul, Saint Zenobius, a Bishop Saint and Six Angels<\/em> (1335\u201337), which the dealer calls \u201ca unique survival from 14th-century Florence.\u201d At just two and a half feet high, the gold-framed piece likely evoked an ecclesiastical setting in a private home. The panels surrounding the central scene were likely painted by Giovanni Gaddi, the Master of the Misericordia. At $6 million, it is one of the highest-priced works known to be on offer. (Some dealers share prices with the foundation, others do not.)<\/p>\n

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Joan Miro, Femme Revant de L\u2019Evasion<\/em> (1945), on offer from Landau Fine Art, of Montreal, Canada, and Meggen, Switzerland.<\/span>Anna Janson<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tEvans, of Landau Fine Art, a longtime exhibitor, told ARTnews <\/em>by phone that \u201cTEFAF remains, to us, the greatest art fair in the world, with the richest quality of exceptional art from the widest period of human history and expression. It offers the greatest concentration of leading galleries, dealers, and experts in such various fields as any antiquities fair you can attend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tLandau is bringing paintings and sculptures by Italian artist Marino Marini; paintings and sculptures by Spanish artist Joan Mir\u00f3; and work from American Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, among other material.<\/p>\n

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Pierre Auguste Renoir. Le chapeau aux cerises <\/em>(ca. 1884), on offer from M.S. Rau.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe Louisiana dealer also touts works by French Impressionists Berthe Morisot and Claude Monet, but says he\u2019s perhaps most excited about a Fauvist Henri Matisse painting. \u201cWe unveiled it a week ago to our email list,\u201d he said, \u201cand we we got requests to borrow it from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Mus\u00e9e d\u2019Orsay.\u201d But it\u2019s not all seven-figure items at Rau; the gallery has offerings priced as low as $20,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tM. S. Rau, of New Orleans, is showing for only the third year, though owner and CEO Bill Rau has long attended. He is offering what he calls an \u201cexceptionally important\u201d piece by French Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir. Le chapeau aux cerises <\/em>(ca. 1884) measures less than two feet high and shows Renoir\u2019s future wife, Aline Charigot, who appears in many of his other works, wearing the titular hat adorned with cherries. \u201cShe was his favorite muse, and this was done at the high period of his talent,\u201d said Rau. It\u2019s tagged at just shy of $9.9 million. According to data from art analytics company ARTDAI, ponly a dozen Renoir works have sold for more than that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/tefaf-fair-maastricht-edition-undaunted-global-unrest-2026-1234776712\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/March13-JorgeWelsh-208-LoraineBodewes-3.jpg?w=1024″] Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0This story originally appeared in\u00a0On Balance,\u00a0the ARTnews\u00a0newsletter about the art market and beyond.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive it every Wednesday. New York Old Master prints and drawings dealer David Tunick recently tallied up exactly how much time he has spent attending the TEFAF art fair at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1820148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1820148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1820148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1820148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1820148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}