Souren Melikian The New York Times Media Group
International Herald Tribune
03-21-2009
The Maastricht fine art fair ends on a glorious buying binge
Byline: Souren Melikian The New York Times Media Group
Edition: 3
Section: FEATURES
MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands --
Business is blooming against all odds in the art market when the rest of the world economy shrinks.
As the 22nd European Fine Art Fair, which closes on Sunday, opened its doors to the private viewing on March 12, the rush of hundreds of well-heeled prospective buyers to get in first was as feverish as ever. Transactions were concluded there and then at prices that would not have been higher the previous year.
William Noortman of Maastricht had the good fortune of displaying a small panel by Gabriel Metsu, painted with the kind of scene that every admirer of the 17th-century Amsterdam observer of everyday life hopes to find one day. An old woman seated at a table steadies an earthenware pot on her lap while raising a spoon to her lips, with a worried look, as if not quite sure of being able to control her hands. On the crumpled cloth, bread, cheese, and a mottled stoneware jug with a pewter lid make up a still life lit up by sunshine. A cat lies at her feet, ears thrown back, with the wary expression of a spoiled pet who has been at the forbidden goods. The picture speaks of the solitude of old age on a quiet day with no drama and nothing to look forward to. In mint condition, the rarity - for which the Dutch dealer was asking euro 3.6 million, or $4.8 million - sold within minutes.
Konrad Bernheimer, who owns Colnaghi in London, had discovered an unpublished portrait of a young man painted by Rubens around 1610- 15. The euro 5.6 million picture or thereabouts was swiftly picked up by a German collector.
Nearby, Johnny Van Haeften of London was displaying a landscape by the remarkable Martin Ryckaert, whose view of a Flemish town on either side of a river, done in the early 1620s with a fairy-tale atmosphere, proved irresistible. Here too, the asking price, $1.2 million, was not a problem.
A telling sign of the bullishness of buyers was the wide span of genres that found favor with the guests at the private viewing. Mr. Van Haeften also sold a busy street scene by Joos de Momper the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder painted around the same time as the Ryckaert. The price, pound(s)650,000, or under $900,000, was quoted in sterling to a New World buyer who may have enjoyed the appreciation of the dollar against the British currency.
If there was any concession to the times, this was the wide range of prices, from very high to surprisingly modest.
Masterpieces by Old Masters who have been bypassed by fame can be downright inexpensive compared with what pictures graced by more exalted signatures will cost. Mr. Van Haeften was the all-time winner at that game. His interior of a barn signed by Herman Saftleven around 1650 is bathed in a light that gives the humble possessions of a countrywoman a Rembrandt-like feel. A German client pounced on the gem at the viewing. At euro 49,000, Mr. Van Haeften could have sold it three times over.
Several important galleries made a point of bringing approachable paintings. Agnew's of London brought to Maastricht a small oval canvas by Charles de La Fosse, "The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine," which was listed as "disparu" (lost) in the catalogue raisonne of the 17th-century French artist's iuvre compiled by C. Gustin-Gomez in 2006. The discovery effect combined with the euro 35,000 price tag worked wonders. "The Mystic Marriage" was quickly snatched away at the private viewing.
The effort to offer significant works within a low price range led to some of the most interesting discoveries at Maastricht. Agnew's again displayed a previously unrecorded masterpiece by one of the most underrated English school artists, the Irish-born Francis Danby. A Norwegian "Lake View" painted by the artist in 1833, years after he had moved to London, is as profoundly poetic as it is original in composition. At euro 85,000, you can't do much better than that.
Some of the most fascinating pictures in the fair were dragged out of oblivion by lesser known galleries whose contribution to Maastricht greatly enhances its attraction to collectors. Rafael Valls of London made two wonderful finds. One is a still life by an elusive Dutch painter, C. van der Radt, previously known only through three interior views dating from the 1670s. Each flower is painted with a bold monumentality that appeals to the modern eye. The asking price was pound(s)95,000. It went on March 13.
The other discovery was the interior of an early 17th-century church by Anthonie de Lorme, who specialized in ecclesiastical architecture. The light, which seems to rise from the ground, gives it an irresistible sense of mystery. As I gazed at it on March 14, an American curator who is also a collector struck the deal. At pound(s)18,000, it was the coup of the day.
The only evidence that something has changed in the market was the price discrepancy observed on the stands of some well-known dealers. Salomon Lilian of Amsterdam, one of the most talented professionals in the upcoming generation of Old Master specialists, had teased out of its cache a previously unrecorded still life signed by Balthasar van der Ast, in the 1630s. Amongst the largest known, the picture had a substantial $800,000 price tag. It left the stand at the private viewing.
Mr. Lilian also showed a rare winter landscape with skaters on a frozen canal painted by Aert van der Neer around 1640. Offered last year at about euro 600,000, it had been admired by a client, but deemed too expensive. This year the Van der Neer was back on Mr. Lilian's stand, consigned by the same owner who now felt a pressing need for cash. The asking price, cut down to euro 500,000, made all the difference in the world to the collector, who had admired it and bought it last week on March 14.
Perhaps the greatest potential coup in the fair was a marine with a sailing boat and a barque tossed on choppy seas done in the 1630s by one of the greatest Dutch masters, Jan van Goyen. Handled with a great economy of means and painted in brisk touches of the brush, this is a connoisseur's gem. The asking price is a laughable euro 300,000. An American university museum is said to be thinking about it. Don't think, pal, just get it.
This ebullient mood could be sensed right across the fair when it came to the art of the past. Rupert Wace of London, whose antiquities range from Ancient Egypt to early Celtic bronzes, sold at the opening a second-century B.C. statue of Aphrodite from Greece. Carved out of white marble, it is missing its head and forearms but remains dazzling for its virtuosity. The bill, in the region of half a million euros, was gladly settled by someone who loves art, but is not a specialized collector.
Within half an hour, Mr. Wace parted with his greatest rarity. The small bronze character, wearing a heavy felt cape and the broad conical straw hat sometimes found on early first-millenium B.C. figures from Sardinia, turned up in a provincial auction house where the contents of the house that belonged to the artist Thetis Blacker were being dispersed. Mr. Wace, who bought the object for a fraction of what it might have made on the international market, knew the family. Delving into the late owner's biography, Mr. Wace found that the bronze had been inherited by the artist from her grandfather Carlos Blacker, a close friend of Oscar Wilde's. This gave it a dream provenance, long before the 1970 cut-off date established by Unesco, after which antiquities dug up in unknown circumstances are no longer accepted as legitimately acquired. With that in mind, Mr. Wace priced the bronze in the region of euro 120,000 and sold it to a couple of German collectors who caught the rare bird at the private viewing. It is for such finds that art buyers keep running to Maastricht.
If fast enough, they may even lay hands on such trinkets as a euro 1,500 bronze finial cast around the second to fourth century A.D. during the great migrations. That was the contemporary jeweler Joel Rosenthal's ("JAR") lucky strike on the stand of the Munich gallery Rhea.
By mid-week, Mr. Wace said he had done significantly better than in 2008. Ben Janssens, a Far Eastern art dealer, told the IHT that his sales were easily up by 20 percent. Mr. Van Haeften sold 21 paintings against 16 last year. Jacques de la Beraudiere of Geneva and Anisabelle Beres of Paris, who focus on 20th-century art, were beaming. Maastricht could have been on another planet where no one had heard of the subprime crisis.
(Copyright 2009)
The Maastricht fine art fair ends on a glorious buying bingeSouren Melikian The New York Times Media Group
International Herald Tribune
03-21-2009
The Maastricht fine art fair ends on a glorious buying binge
Byline: Souren Melikian The New York Times Media Group
Edition: 3
Section: FEATURES
MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands --
Business is blooming against all odds in the art market when the rest of the world economy shrinks.
As the 22nd European Fine Art Fair, which closes on Sunday, opened its doors to the private viewing on March 12, the rush of hundreds of well-heeled prospective buyers to get in first was as feverish as ever. Transactions were concluded there and then at prices that would not have been higher the previous year.
William Noortman of Maastricht had the good fortune of displaying a small panel by Gabriel Metsu, painted with the kind of scene that every admirer of the 17th-century Amsterdam observer of everyday life hopes to find one day. An old woman seated at a table steadies an earthenware pot on her lap while raising a spoon to her lips, with a worried look, as if not quite sure of being able to control her hands. On the crumpled cloth, bread, cheese, and a mottled stoneware jug with a pewter lid make up a still life lit up by sunshine. A cat lies at her feet, ears thrown back, with the wary expression of a spoiled pet who has been at the forbidden goods. The picture speaks of the solitude of old age on a quiet day with no drama and nothing to look forward to. In mint condition, the rarity - for which the Dutch dealer was asking euro 3.6 million, or $4.8 million - sold within minutes.
Konrad Bernheimer, who owns Colnaghi in London, had discovered an unpublished portrait of a young man painted by Rubens around 1610- 15. The euro 5.6 million picture or thereabouts was swiftly picked up by a German collector.
Nearby, Johnny Van Haeften of London was displaying a landscape by the remarkable Martin Ryckaert, whose view of a Flemish town on either side of a river, done in the early 1620s with a fairy-tale atmosphere, proved irresistible. Here too, the asking price, $1.2 million, was not a problem.
A telling sign of the bullishness of buyers was the wide span of genres that found favor with the guests at the private viewing. Mr. Van Haeften also sold a busy street scene by Joos de Momper the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder painted around the same time as the Ryckaert. The price, pound(s)650,000, or under $900,000, was quoted in sterling to a New World buyer who may have enjoyed the appreciation of the dollar against the British currency.
If there was any concession to the times, this was the wide range of prices, from very high to surprisingly modest.
Masterpieces by Old Masters who have been bypassed by fame can be downright inexpensive compared with what pictures graced by more exalted signatures will cost. Mr. Van Haeften was the all-time winner at that game. His interior of a barn signed by Herman Saftleven around 1650 is bathed in a light that gives the humble possessions of a countrywoman a Rembrandt-like feel. A German client pounced on the gem at the viewing. At euro 49,000, Mr. Van Haeften could have sold it three times over.
Several important galleries made a point of bringing approachable paintings. Agnew's of London brought to Maastricht a small oval canvas by Charles de La Fosse, "The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine," which was listed as "disparu" (lost) in the catalogue raisonne of the 17th-century French artist's iuvre compiled by C. Gustin-Gomez in 2006. The discovery effect combined with the euro 35,000 price tag worked wonders. "The Mystic Marriage" was quickly snatched away at the private viewing.
The effort to offer significant works within a low price range led to some of the most interesting discoveries at Maastricht. Agnew's again displayed a previously unrecorded masterpiece by one of the most underrated English school artists, the Irish-born Francis Danby. A Norwegian "Lake View" painted by the artist in 1833, years after he had moved to London, is as profoundly poetic as it is original in composition. At euro 85,000, you can't do much better than that.
Some of the most fascinating pictures in the fair were dragged out of oblivion by lesser known galleries whose contribution to Maastricht greatly enhances its attraction to collectors. Rafael Valls of London made two wonderful finds. One is a still life by an elusive Dutch painter, C. van der Radt, previously known only through three interior views dating from the 1670s. Each flower is painted with a bold monumentality that appeals to the modern eye. The asking price was pound(s)95,000. It went on March 13.
The other discovery was the interior of an early 17th-century church by Anthonie de Lorme, who specialized in ecclesiastical architecture. The light, which seems to rise from the ground, gives it an irresistible sense of mystery. As I gazed at it on March 14, an American curator who is also a collector struck the deal. At pound(s)18,000, it was the coup of the day.
The only evidence that something has changed in the market was the price discrepancy observed on the stands of some well-known dealers. Salomon Lilian of Amsterdam, one of the most talented professionals in the upcoming generation of Old Master specialists, had teased out of its cache a previously unrecorded still life signed by Balthasar van der Ast, in the 1630s. Amongst the largest known, the picture had a substantial $800,000 price tag. It left the stand at the private viewing.
Mr. Lilian also showed a rare winter landscape with skaters on a frozen canal painted by Aert van der Neer around 1640. Offered last year at about euro 600,000, it had been admired by a client, but deemed too expensive. This year the Van der Neer was back on Mr. Lilian's stand, consigned by the same owner who now felt a pressing need for cash. The asking price, cut down to euro 500,000, made all the difference in the world to the collector, who had admired it and bought it last week on March 14.
Perhaps the greatest potential coup in the fair was a marine with a sailing boat and a barque tossed on choppy seas done in the 1630s by one of the greatest Dutch masters, Jan van Goyen. Handled with a great economy of means and painted in brisk touches of the brush, this is a connoisseur's gem. The asking price is a laughable euro 300,000. An American university museum is said to be thinking about it. Don't think, pal, just get it.
This ebullient mood could be sensed right across the fair when it came to the art of the past. Rupert Wace of London, whose antiquities range from Ancient Egypt to early Celtic bronzes, sold at the opening a second-century B.C. statue of Aphrodite from Greece. Carved out of white marble, it is missing its head and forearms but remains dazzling for its virtuosity. The bill, in the region of half a million euros, was gladly settled by someone who loves art, but is not a specialized collector.
Within half an hour, Mr. Wace parted with his greatest rarity. The small bronze character, wearing a heavy felt cape and the broad conical straw hat sometimes found on early first-millenium B.C. figures from Sardinia, turned up in a provincial auction house where the contents of the house that belonged to the artist Thetis Blacker were being dispersed. Mr. Wace, who bought the object for a fraction of what it might have made on the international market, knew the family. Delving into the late owner's biography, Mr. Wace found that the bronze had been inherited by the artist from her grandfather Carlos Blacker, a close friend of Oscar Wilde's. This gave it a dream provenance, long before the 1970 cut-off date established by Unesco, after which antiquities dug up in unknown circumstances are no longer accepted as legitimately acquired. With that in mind, Mr. Wace priced the bronze in the region of euro 120,000 and sold it to a couple of German collectors who caught the rare bird at the private viewing. It is for such finds that art buyers keep running to Maastricht.
If fast enough, they may even lay hands on such trinkets as a euro 1,500 bronze finial cast around the second to fourth century A.D. during the great migrations. That was the contemporary jeweler Joel Rosenthal's ("JAR") lucky strike on the stand of the Munich gallery Rhea.
By mid-week, Mr. Wace said he had done significantly better than in 2008. Ben Janssens, a Far Eastern art dealer, told the IHT that his sales were easily up by 20 percent. Mr. Van Haeften sold 21 paintings against 16 last year. Jacques de la Beraudiere of Geneva and Anisabelle Beres of Paris, who focus on 20th-century art, were beaming. Maastricht could have been on another planet where no one had heard of the subprime crisis.
(Copyright 2009)
The Maastricht fine art fair ends on a glorious buying bingeSouren Melikian The New York Times Media Group
International Herald Tribune
03-21-2009
The Maastricht fine art fair ends on a glorious buying binge
Byline: Souren Melikian The New York Times Media Group
Edition: 3
Section: FEATURES
MAASTRICHT, the Netherlands --
Business is blooming against all odds in the art market when the rest of the world economy shrinks.
As the 22nd European Fine Art Fair, which closes on Sunday, opened its doors to the private viewing on March 12, the rush of hundreds of well-heeled prospective buyers to get in first was as feverish as ever. Transactions were concluded there and then at prices that would not have been higher the previous year.
William Noortman of Maastricht had the good fortune of displaying a small panel by Gabriel Metsu, painted with the kind of scene that every admirer of the 17th-century Amsterdam observer of everyday life hopes to find one day. An old woman seated at a table steadies an earthenware pot on her lap while raising a spoon to her lips, with a worried look, as if not quite sure of being able to control her hands. On the crumpled cloth, bread, cheese, and a mottled stoneware jug with a pewter lid make up a still life lit up by sunshine. A cat lies at her feet, ears thrown back, with the wary expression of a spoiled pet who has been at the forbidden goods. The picture speaks of the solitude of old age on a quiet day with no drama and nothing to look forward to. In mint condition, the rarity - for which the Dutch dealer was asking euro 3.6 million, or $4.8 million - sold within minutes.
Konrad Bernheimer, who owns Colnaghi in London, had discovered an unpublished portrait of a young man painted by Rubens around 1610- 15. The euro 5.6 million picture or thereabouts was swiftly picked up by a German collector.
Nearby, Johnny Van Haeften of London was displaying a landscape by the remarkable Martin Ryckaert, whose view of a Flemish town on either side of a river, done in the early 1620s with a fairy-tale atmosphere, proved irresistible. Here too, the asking price, $1.2 million, was not a problem.
A telling sign of the bullishness of buyers was the wide span of genres that found favor with the guests at the private viewing. Mr. Van Haeften also sold a busy street scene by Joos de Momper the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder painted around the same time as the Ryckaert. The price, pound(s)650,000, or under $900,000, was quoted in sterling to a New World buyer who may have enjoyed the appreciation of the dollar against the British currency.
If there was any concession to the times, this was the wide range of prices, from very high to surprisingly modest.
Masterpieces by Old Masters who have been bypassed by fame can be downright inexpensive compared with what pictures graced by more exalted signatures will cost. Mr. Van Haeften was the all-time winner at that game. His interior of a barn signed by Herman Saftleven around 1650 is bathed in a light that gives the humble possessions of a countrywoman a Rembrandt-like feel. A German client pounced on the gem at the viewing. At euro 49,000, Mr. Van Haeften could have sold it three times over.
Several important galleries made a point of bringing approachable paintings. Agnew's of London brought to Maastricht a small oval canvas by Charles de La Fosse, "The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine," which was listed as "disparu" (lost) in the catalogue raisonne of the 17th-century French artist's iuvre compiled by C. Gustin-Gomez in 2006. The discovery effect combined with the euro 35,000 price tag worked wonders. "The Mystic Marriage" was quickly snatched away at the private viewing.
The effort to offer significant works within a low price range led to some of the most interesting discoveries at Maastricht. Agnew's again displayed a previously unrecorded masterpiece by one of the most underrated English school artists, the Irish-born Francis Danby. A Norwegian "Lake View" painted by the artist in 1833, years after he had moved to London, is as profoundly poetic as it is original in composition. At euro 85,000, you can't do much better than that.
Some of the most fascinating pictures in the fair were dragged out of oblivion by lesser known galleries whose contribution to Maastricht greatly enhances its attraction to collectors. Rafael Valls of London made two wonderful finds. One is a still life by an elusive Dutch painter, C. van der Radt, previously known only through three interior views dating from the 1670s. Each flower is painted with a bold monumentality that appeals to the modern eye. The asking price was pound(s)95,000. It went on March 13.
The other discovery was the interior of an early 17th-century church by Anthonie de Lorme, who specialized in ecclesiastical architecture. The light, which seems to rise from the ground, gives it an irresistible sense of mystery. As I gazed at it on March 14, an American curator who is also a collector struck the deal. At pound(s)18,000, it was the coup of the day.
The only evidence that something has changed in the market was the price discrepancy observed on the stands of some well-known dealers. Salomon Lilian of Amsterdam, one of the most talented professionals in the upcoming generation of Old Master specialists, had teased out of its cache a previously unrecorded still life signed by Balthasar van der Ast, in the 1630s. Amongst the largest known, the picture had a substantial $800,000 price tag. It left the stand at the private viewing.
Mr. Lilian also showed a rare winter landscape with skaters on a frozen canal painted by Aert van der Neer around 1640. Offered last year at about euro 600,000, it had been admired by a client, but deemed too expensive. This year the Van der Neer was back on Mr. Lilian's stand, consigned by the same owner who now felt a pressing need for cash. The asking price, cut down to euro 500,000, made all the difference in the world to the collector, who had admired it and bought it last week on March 14.
Perhaps the greatest potential coup in the fair was a marine with a sailing boat and a barque tossed on choppy seas done in the 1630s by one of the greatest Dutch masters, Jan van Goyen. Handled with a great economy of means and painted in brisk touches of the brush, this is a connoisseur's gem. The asking price is a laughable euro 300,000. An American university museum is said to be thinking about it. Don't think, pal, just get it.
This ebullient mood could be sensed right across the fair when it came to the art of the past. Rupert Wace of London, whose antiquities range from Ancient Egypt to early Celtic bronzes, sold at the opening a second-century B.C. statue of Aphrodite from Greece. Carved out of white marble, it is missing its head and forearms but remains dazzling for its virtuosity. The bill, in the region of half a million euros, was gladly settled by someone who loves art, but is not a specialized collector.
Within half an hour, Mr. Wace parted with his greatest rarity. The small bronze character, wearing a heavy felt cape and the broad conical straw hat sometimes found on early first-millenium B.C. figures from Sardinia, turned up in a provincial auction house where the contents of the house that belonged to the artist Thetis Blacker were being dispersed. Mr. Wace, who bought the object for a fraction of what it might have made on the international market, knew the family. Delving into the late owner's biography, Mr. Wace found that the bronze had been inherited by the artist from her grandfather Carlos Blacker, a close friend of Oscar Wilde's. This gave it a dream provenance, long before the 1970 cut-off
date established by Unesco, after which antiquities dug up in unknown circumstances are no longer accepted as legitimately acquired. With that in mind, Mr. Wace priced the bronze in the region of euro 120,000 and sold it to a couple of German collectors who caught the rare bird at the private viewing. It is for such finds that art buyers keep running to Maastricht.
If fast enough, they may even lay hands on such trinkets as a euro 1,500 bronze finial cast around the second to fourth century A.D. during the great migrations. That was the contemporary jeweler Joel Rosenthal's ("JAR") lucky strike on the stand of the Munich gallery Rhea.
By mid-week, Mr. Wace said he had done significantly better than in 2008. Ben Janssens, a Far Eastern art dealer, told the IHT that his sales were easily up by 20 percent. Mr. Van Haeften sold 21 paintings against 16 last year. Jacques de la Beraudiere of Geneva and Anisabelle Beres of Paris, who focus on 20th-century art, were beaming. Maastricht could have been on another planet where no one had heard of the subprime crisis.
(Copyright 2009)
