TEFAF Maastricht, the world’s most influential art and antiques fair, will have a record number of 260 exhibitors from 17 countries when the 23rd edition opens at the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) in the southern Netherlands from 12-21 March 2010.

The European Fine Art Fair will reinforce its reputation for quality with exhibitors bringing only the very finest art and antiques all of which will be rigorously vetted by teams of experts. It will expand by introducing TEFAF on Paper, a new section devoted entirely to works on paper. The latest in a series of groundbreaking reports specially prepared for TEFAF will examine how the international art market has fared during the economic recession.

Magnificent Works of Art
Exhibitors at TEFAF will show some 30,000 works of art and antiques, including paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, furniture, classical antiquities, illuminated manuscripts, jewellery, textiles, porcelain, glass, silver, design and other works of art. Every era from classical antiquity to the 21st century will be represented.

Among the many works of art for sale at TEFAF will be:

• The Courtenay Compendium, a long-lost collection of historical tracts last seen in the 16th-century which contains the first substantial manuscript relating to the traveller Marco Polo to come onto the market for almost a hundred years. It will be offered for sale by Dr Jörn Günther Rare Books from Switzerland for €2.5 million.

• A rare Tianhuang seal from the Kangxi period (1662-1722) in China. Superbly carved in the form of a crouching lioness, the 5cms high seal with the name of one of the Emperor’s sons inscribed on the side was made by a master craftsman. It will be exhibited by Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art Ltd. of London with an asking price of €550,000.

• A 15th-century domestic altarpiece depicting the Madonna and Child enthroned between saints by Giovanni di Paolo which exemplifies the exquisite late Gothic style in Sienese painting to be exhibited by Moretti Fine Art Ltd. of Florence, London and New York. The price will be €2.2 million.

• A man singing, a magnificent Old Master painting by the 17th century Dutch artist Jan Lievens, who worked alongside Rembrandt, which will be offered for sale for a price in the region of €800,000 by Whitfield Fine Art of London.

• The highly important “Portrait of George Washington” painted in 1822 by the American artist Gilbert Stuart. This picture of the first President of the United States will be brought to TEFAF by first-time exhibitor Hammer Galleries of New York. The price will be €5 million.

• “Untitled XVI”, a 1982 work by the Dutch-born painter Willem de Kooning, who became a leading Abstract Expressionist artist in the United States, to be shown by new exhibitor L&M Arts of New York priced at €3.7 million.

• A late 16th-century winged dragon pendant made from gold set with emeralds which was once in the Rothschild Collection and which will be brought to TEFAF by the Spanish dealer Luis Elvira and offered for sale for a price in the region of €100,000.

• A rare Indo-Portuguese silver filigree casket from 17th century Goa which will be exhibited by Kunstkammer Georg Laue from Munich. Only two other similar works by craftsmen from Goa are known, both of them in museums. The price will be €63,000.

• A pair of ormolu-mounted kingwood, sycamore and fruitwood marquetry commodes made in Dresden c1765 probably by a court cabinet maker for a royal apartment. They will be exhibited by Kunsthandel Peter Mühlbauer from Germany and priced at €420,000 for the pair.