TEFAF Maastricht 2017: Highlights and high points

According to organisers, TEFAF Maastricht attracted more than 10,000 collectors and institutional representatives during preview day on March 9, in addition to more than 7000 visitors on the first public day of the fair, March 10.

However footfall on day two was down 10% on last year and many dealers reported that major sales trailed off after the first few days.

The jury is out on whether visitors from the US appeared in any great number. Many admitted they had seen very few Americans but the usual curators from major US museum were still in attendance. 

One dealer who sold a piece to an American museum was Benjamin Proust whose Paduan terracotta musical procession from c.1510 was believed to have been acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York through a private donor for a six figure sum.

There are still three more selling days until it wraps up on March 19, however here is ATG’s latest round up of sales:

• Tomasso Brothers Fine Art has sold a limewood statuette of Julius Caesar, circa 1551, by Renaissance master Giambologna (1529-1608) which was priced at $1.5m. A European private collector bought the piece and Tomasso said it is the earliest recorded work by the artist and the only surviving sculpture that he carved in wood.

• John Endlich Antiquairs sold a dolls’ house, which carried an asking price of €1.8m, to a private American collector and it will go on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

• James Butterwick has so far sold a total of six pictures including two collages by Boris Kosarev. The pair, which include a 1922 portrait of Velimir Khlebnikov, went for £20,000 each to a German Collector.

• Stephen Ongpin has so far sold seven drawings, three of which went to museums - one a new client - and five to other new clients. He also sold a watercolour, The Guardian Angel, by Charles Maurin to a private collector. It had an asking price of £55,000.

• Benappi is exhibiting Michele Tosini's c. 1563 panel for the Maddalen Altoviti altarpiece alongside a backlit radiography photograph which shows the quality of the draughtsmanship as well as the piece's good condition. Two copies of the radiography, which is priced around £4000, have sold already.

• Martyn Gregory sold two pieces to museums, including a painting by Ernst Agerbeek, The Barber Shop, which was offered at £60,000 and went to a museum in Singapore.

• Dutch dealer Aronson Antiquairs sold a blue and white baluster-shaped flower vase, Delft circa 1700, which is attributed to De Witte Ster (The White Star) factory, for €250,000.

• Glassware specialist Adrian Sassoon sold a set of five blue and white vases by Robin Best (b.1953), to a museum for in the region of €40,000.

• Chinese export porcelain specialist were among those performing well and Jorge Welsh set of six Dutch Provinces dishes from the Qing Dynasty to a private collector for a six figure sum,  a model of a monkey group to a museum in Asia for a high five figure sum, and a pair of boar head tureens to a private collector for a six figure sum.

• Fellow specialist Cohen & Cohen sold a number of Chinese export porcelain pieces including a pair of 16in (41cm) high blue and white tulipieres. The three tiered flower holders from circa 1700 in the Kangxi period were bought by a US collector for a six figure sum.

• Daniel Katz sold Self-Portrait, 1962 by Claudio Bravo (1936-2011) for £195,000 to a private UK collector, and Lamentation, 16th century, gilt and polychromed wood, attributed to Arnao de Bruselas (1515-1564) was bought by a UK museum.

• Book dealer Shapero Rare Books announced the sale of its illustrated folio Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam) by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) which was sold to a European collector.  Priced at £125,000, the lavishly illustrated and hand-coloured copy of the 1726 edition was a highlight of the stand.

• Dr Jörn Günther Rare Books sold a compilation of chronicles made for Willem van Bergh, circa 1455, to the Huis Bergh museum.

• In the Paper section of the fair, a Study of Sir Winston Churchill, by Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) sold at Christopher Kingzett for close to the asking price of €100,000 to a private European collector.

• Merrin Gallery sold a fourth century BC Phrygion helmet for a six-figure sum.

• Within the first few hours of the fair opening Colnaghi announced it had sold a previously unknown work by Bartolomeo Cavarozzi (1587-1625) to private European foundation for €5m.

• Old Master dealer Derek Johns sold four paintings on the first day, two of which were early Netherlandish pictures. The buyers were from Germany, the US, UK and Italy and one of the works sold for €500,000. Among the sales was a diptych by the Master of Lille c.1540 depicting St Jérome on one panel and Christ supported by God the Father on the other.

• Doge’s Palace in Venice by Federico Moja (1802-1885) was sold by new exhibitor Salamon & C for €85,000, to a private collection in America.

• Other sales included an Edwardian diamond encrusted tiara, with provenance to the Spencer family, sold by Hancocks with an asking price of £185,000; a portrait of a member of the Guild of St. Sebastian, circa 1645 at art dealer Agnews, Galerie Canesso sold Self-Portrait with a Turban by Wallerant Vaillant (1623-177) and private collectors bought a number of pieces of Asian netsuke works from Sydney Moss. Amir Mohtashemi has two pieces on reserve to museums while silver dealer Koopman Rare Art sold several pieces by English silversmith Paul Storr (1771–1844) and Lullo Pampoulides Fine Art sold the oldest work of the fair, a 155 million-year-old Camarasaurus Dorsal Vertebra, Upper Jurassic, Salt and Pepper, Quarry, which comes from Colorado in the US.