One of the highlights at the Fair, the rare foliate rim Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) dish shown byLittleton & Hennessy Asian Art, London and New York (stand 269) with an asking price of 15 million Euros was sold a Chinese art collector. Another major piece, Moulin de la Galette by Vincent van Gogh (1835-1890) which was brought to the Fair by Dickinson, London (stand 402), with negotiations for sale at an advanced stage.

Sales in the paintings section of the Fair were strong. Although once known largely for the strength of its presentation of Northern European paintings, the section has broadened over the past decade and French, Italian and Spanish pictures of quality are now equally well represented. On Saturday the director of the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Sjarel Ex, announced to an international press corps that the museum had bought a painting by Vilhelm Hammershøi entitled The Balcony Room at ‘Spurveskjul’ from Daxer & Marschall, Munich (stand 337) on the first day of TEFAF. Galerie Canesso, Paris (stand 346) was delighted to report the sale of a painting by Giovanni Lanfranco (1582 – 1647) entitled Rinaldo’s Farewell to Armida to a European museum. The painting is signed and dated on the hull of the ship ioa.s Lanfranca Parm/1614. Dutch and Flemish specialist, Habolt, Paris (stand 343), sold a number of pictures including a Still-Life depicting a roemer, a brazier, a clay pipe with plates of herring, bread and a deck of cards, by Pieter Claesz (c. 1597-1660) with an asking price of 2.7 million to a private American collector. Supper at Emmaus by the Italian baroque painter Bernardo Strozzi (1581-1644) was also sold to a private buyer by Otto Naumann, New York (stand 351). The painting had an asking price of 3.5 million dollars.

The Modern Section of the Fair also saw success. Galerie Odermatt-Vedovi sold a hanging mobile by Alexander Calder (1898-1976) entitled Black 2-2-6, 1965, which had an asking price of 2.6 million euros to a private European collector. An oil on canvas work by Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) entitled Abstraktes Bild, 1986 with an asking price in excess of 3 million dollars was sold by Van der Weghe Fine Art, New York (stand 522) to a new client. Works by the Korean artist, Yi Hwan-Kwon (b. 1974) proved popular with three selling in short succession to separate private collectors on the stand of Gana Art, Seoul (stand 526) while Waterhouse & Dodd, London (stand 355) were pleased to announce the sale of their catalogue piece, an oil on canvas work from 1979 entitled Le Soir sur la Seine by Marc Chagall (1887-1985), which had an asking price in excess of1 million Euros. A selection of works by the Zero group of artists formed the focus of London specialists, Mayor Gallery’s stand (stand 453) at TEFAF and they were pleased to sell more than fifteen of these works. Other galleries at the fair showing work by the Zero Group included Borzo Modern and Contemporary Art, Amsterdam (stand 450); Beck & Eggeling,Düsseldorf (stand 505) and Robilant + Voena , London and Milan (stand 384)

One of the highlights of the Fair, a magnificent soup tureen on stand bearing the makers mark of Jacques- Nicolas Roettiers, Paris 1770 was sold by Koopman Rare Art, London (stand 152) to a private buyer. The piece had been given by Catherine II, Empress of Russia (1729-1796) to Count Orloff in 1772; it was reacquired by Catherine II in 1784 and remained in the imperial collection until 1917. Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, New York (stand 273) sold a monumental panoramic scene (1400cm x 210cm) depicting the Banks of the Bosphorus, c. 1812, by the renowned French wall-paper manufacturer Joseph Dufour. Somlo Antiques, London (stand 157) reported the sale of a Presidential presentation pocket watch by the American watch manufacturer Waltham. It had been given by President Thomas Woodrow Wilson to Henry William Webster, captain of a tug boat for his assistance to the US vessel Piave.

Former showcase exhibitor and tribal specialist, Galerie Didier Claes, Brussels (stand 135) was pleased to report the sale of a Songye fetish statue of a chieftan, which had a sale price of between 500,00 and 1 million Euros and a Luba stool, the latter selling to the Musée Dapper, Paris for 600,000 euros. Bernard de Grunne, Brussels (stand 122) sold a collection of fifteen Senufe champion staffs to a Canadian private collector. Among the early sales at Rossi & Rossi, London (stand 166) was a gilt bronze Vajrasattva shakti, Mongolia School of Zanabazar, late 17 th – early 18th century, which had an asking price of 1.5m dollars.

In the Design Section Bel Etage, Wolfgang Bauer, Vienna (stand 606) sold a number of objects including a Wiener Werstätte silver tea set by Josef Hoffman, 1923 with an asking price of 165,000 euros to a Japanese collector and a bronze, silver and glass mantel clock by Adolf Loos with an asking price of 170,000 euros to a German collector.

Egyptian antiquities also seemed to sell well. Charles Ede, London (stand 426) reported to sale of an Egyptian Limestone relief of Nefertari, wife of Rameses II, shown as the deified Ahmose-Nefertari, wearing the vulture headdress topped by double plumes with an asking price of 195,000 euros to an American institution. Axel Vervoordt, Wijnegem (stand 424) sold a head from a block statue, New Kingdom, Thebes, 18th dynasty c. 1428- 1397 BC also to an American museum. A portrait head of Caracalla, Tunisia, early 3rd century AD was sold to a private collector for an asking price of more than 600,000 euros by The Merrin Gallery, New York (stand 432).