TEFAF Announces Museum Acquisitions from New York, Masstrict Fairs

Though the TEFAF art fair has begun dipping its toes into contemporary fare, the European Fine Arts Foundation’s spring art fairs—in Maastricht and New York—remain best known for its Old Master paintings and antiquities. For this reason, the prestigious fair has long attracted established collectors, patrons, and high-ranking international curators.

Sales at this year’s Maastrict edition, held on March 20 through 25, were “slow and steady,” ARTnews reported. A fair spokesperson additionally remarked that, compared to last year’s fair, this year’s edition saw more institutional acquisitions.

One notable acquisition is the Art Institute of Chicago’s (AIC) purchase of Léon Spilliaert’s 1907 Autoportrait sur fond bleu (Self-Portrait With Blue Background). The 20th-century Belgian artist is (or was…) a “hidden gem,” according to a Dutch art adviser who spoke with ARTnews in Maastrict. The AIC purchased the pastel drawing from David Levy, a dealer with galleries in Brussels and Paris.

Other important museum sales from this year’s TEFAF fairs include the central panel of a 16th-century triptych depicting the entombment of Christ by Maerten van Heemskerck to the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts (sold by Caretto & Occhinegro); Félix Vallotton’s 1902 painting Champ de blé, Locquirec, showing a woman in traditional dress walking by the season in the small town in Brittany, to the Clark Art Institute, also in Massachusetts (sold by Agnews); and an intricate terracotta “tripod” sculpture by Joseph Chinard that was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (sold by Stuart Lochhead Sculpture).

Perhaps the cutest fair purchase (from Kunsthandel Mehringer) is Petrus Camper’s 18th-century sculpture Miss Clara, which the Rijksmuseum has now added to its collection of rhinoceros art. Like many in the Netherlands, Camper—a scientist as well as an artist—was fascinated by a superstar rhino named Clara who was brought to Rotterdam from India in 1741 and proceeded to tour Europe for nearly two decades, becoming a celebrity in her own right.