A nun and a marchioness in the Mecca of the art market

Maastricht (Netherlands)Every year, for a week, the Tefaf fair in Maastricht becomes an oasis of art and luxury. This year, visitors are welcomed by a gigantic floral dome and the usual stalls selling fish, oysters, and lobster, offering a bite to eat while wandering in and out of the galleries—if they're still hungry after nibbling on the canapés distributed by a string of waiters along the fair's aisles. Whatever happens outside at Tefaf, which opens its doors this Thursday to journalists and invited guests and to the public from the 15th to the 20th, the noise of current events is muffled, aside from the fact that the art market isn't at its best and that the major auction houses have experienced losses of 3% for the gallery owner Artur Ramon: the closure of European airspace due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland, a robbery at the fair, and the COVID pandemic.

Will the war in Ukraine and Trump's political and economic stumbles spoil the party? And what about the activists who demonstrated Thursday morning outside the fair grounds to protest the environmental impact of collectors' private planes? "Tefaf is a bubble," insists Artur Ramon. His stand features a Saint Peter in tears, by Josep de Ribera (between €1 and €1.5 million), one of the fair's recurring names, and Catalan artists including Joan Miró, represented by a tiny painting from 1931 that was exhibited at the Joan Miró Foundation (around €1 million), Eusebi Arnau, from whom a museum in San Francisco is requesting two paintings for a Matisse exhibition), Josep Maria Subirachs, and the Santilari brothers. "I like to say that at Tefaf I exhibit Catalan art in an uninhibited way, that is, from the perspective that it is on the same level as French, Italian, and German art," explains Ramon, adding: "It is very important that Catalan and Spanish art can be seen outside of Spain; it is essential for it to reach private collections." Regarding the other major Catalan gallery participating in Tefaf, Mayoral, a painting by Sean Scully worth €1.5 million stands out.

Tefaf, which this year hosts 273 galleries from 21 countries, is so powerful that it even calms the artistic controversy of these weeks, which is being maintained by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the British gallery owner Stuart Lochhead over whether the Velázquez painting The venerable mother Jerónima de la Fuente It's for sale, or it isn't. Unlike Ribera, whose catalog is broader, making it more exportable, a Velázquez in private hands is automatically a national treasure. The ministry says the gallery only requested a temporary export permit to exhibit The venerable mother Jerónima de la Fuente, and Lochhead refers to his press agency, which says yes. In any case, representatives of museums and world-class collectors will be able to see it at the fair, and they could make purchase offers. And the arrangements to sell it, complying with the State's requirements, can be carried out when the painting returns to Madrid. And if the State doesn't allow its international sale, which would lower its value, would anyone buy it? If there is a buyer, will the ministry exercise its right of first refusal and redemption and keep it? Following the appearance of the painting, which dates from Velázquez's Seville period, an association has emerged, Velázquez for Seville, demanding that the State purchase it for the Museum of Fine Arts in Seville. The story will continue...

However, the sale of Francisco de Goya's portrait of the Marchioness of Caballero, currently on display at the Robilant+Voena gallery (€5.5 million), seems clearer. Everything suggests that it left Spain with a temporary export permit with a two-year sale option, and before Tefaf, it could have been seen in London and New York. Following the appearance of this painting, it has been confirmed that it is the first of the two existing versions (the other is in the Neue Pinakothek in Munich). The portrait of the Marquis of Caballero was purchased by the Huntington Museum in Pasadena at a New York auction last fall, and who knows if the couple would want to keep it... if the State allows it?

The Picasso that Kahnweiler had in his office

In the field of modern and contemporary art, one of the major works on show at the fair is not for sale, at least not at the beginning. It isThe sleepers (1961), the Portrait of a Couple by Pablo Picasso that gallery owner Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler had in his office. "Undoubtedly, the value amounts to more than 50 million euros, but it is not for sale because it is the heart of the family collection," say sources at the Canadian gallery Landau.

On the other hand, the recovery of female artists from all periods is another focus of the fair. Among the galleries that have entered this year are Colnaghi, which is exhibiting works by La Roldana (1652-1706), Emma Soyers (1813-1842), and Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670). Three drawings of pumpkins and figs of the latter can be seen, priced at 500,000 euros each. "Museums ask us for works by female artists," says Colnaghi CEO Jorge Coll.