According to Vogel, tens of thousands have come to TEFAF to view the 260 exhibitors from 16 countries and 30,000 works on display. Expectations are that over 30,000 will attend the show. Vogel reports the contemporary art portion of the fair is weak this year, although there are many attractions for the collector to select from.
Sales reports are preliminary, but dealers are reporting activity so long as the prices represent value. Many also talk up their activity, and many sales at this show happen toward the end or even after the fair has ended.
Vogel reports
To read the complete NY Times article, click HERE.some significant sales have already been reported here, including a $5 million Miró sculpture; a 1671 oil-on-panel view of Haarlem by the Dutch master Gerrit Berckheyde, priced at $6.3 million; and a 1937 Picasso drawing of Dora Maar marked at $2.5 million.
“There’s a huge amount of liquidity out there,” said Richard L. Feigen, the Manhattan dealer. “But with so much turbulence in the world, collectors don’t want to let things go, making it hard to find good material.”
Unlike last year, when there were no blockbuster offerings, this year there are a few. (Though some of the cognoscenti are grumbling that most are a bit too familiar from auctions past.) Otto Naumann, the Manhattan dealer, is offering the fair’s star, Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a Man With Arms Akimbo” from 1658, which depicts an unidentified sitter staring, confidently, straight at the viewer. The painting, priced at $47 million, belongs to Stephen A. Wynn, the Las Vegas casino owner, who paid $33.2 million for it at Christie’s in London two years ago. “I tried to buy it at the Christie’s sale,” said Mr. Naumann, who explained that he persuaded Mr. Wynn to sell it after he read about occupancy rates plunging in Las Vegas last year.
On an adjacent wall is “Portrait of Sigismund Baldinger,” by the 16th-century German painter Georg Pencz. Mr. Naumann bought it at Christie’s in London in July for $8.5 million; he is asking $12 million.
While Mr. Naumann’s booth is one of many with work that has been on the market recently, the fair is not without its discoveries. Jack Kilgore, another Manhattan dealer, bought “Emperor Commodus as Hercules,” a painting on oak panel from 1588-89, in December at a small European auction, where it was cataloged as only 18th-century Flemish school. Examining the meticulous brushwork, he had a hunch it was by Rubens, who had painted a series of Roman emperors, one of which was missing.
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