Luca Giordano, The Calling of Peter and Andrew (circa 1690). Image: Courtesy of Colnaghi

In the first few days of TEFAF, the European Fine Art Fair that kicked off on March 11 in Maastricht, the Netherlands, dealers reported strong sales of works ranging from medieval sculpture to works on paper and contemporary paintings.

“We really had a great fair, especially the first weekend,” Deniz Pekerman, director of Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder told artnet News. “We found that the collectors that visited TEFAF have a very close relationship with paper, even more so than on other fairs that we take part in. You could have in-depth conversations about the work on an entirely different level.”

Helmut Federle Untitled (1981)
Image: Courtesy of Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder

Sales included two works on paper by Helmut Federle for $13,300 (€12,000) each, including Untitled (1981) (pictured above).

The gallery was exhibiting in TEFAF’s nascent contemporary section, “Show Me Your Wound,” curated by Dutch expert Mark Kremer and inspired by a work of Joseph Beuys.

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Installation at Axel Vervoordt.
Image: Courtesy of Axel Vervoordt.

Heinz Mack’s Untitled (1959-1960) (pictured above on right), sold to a German collector at Axel Vervoordt Gallery, a gallery which often mixes modern and contemporary work with antiquities in an effort to bridge the East and West. Prices for works in the booth ranged from $6,700 – $1.6 million (€6,000 to €1.4 million).

Colnaghi, which was staging its first TEFAF booth since it merged with Coll & Cortés, reported several major sales early on. These included: Roelandt Savery’s floral still life (1615), which was acquired by the Mauritshuis for $7.2 million (€6.5 million), and Luca Giordano’s The Calling of Peter and Andrew (1690), for $2.2 million (€2 million).

Georg Petel , Christ and the two thieves
Image: Courtesy of Colnaghi.

A painting titled The Adoration of the Shepherds, by an artist known as Master of the Annunciation to the Shepherds (said to have been active around the first half of the 17th century in Naples), sold to a private collector for the asking price of $2 million (€1.8 million). A set of three 17th-century wood crosses, Christ and the two thieves, by Georg Petel, sold for $892,000 (€800,000) to an American collector, and Gregorio Fernandez’s wood sculpture Saint Benedict of Nursia, sold for $500,000 (€450,000), also to a US collector.

Pierre Auguste Renoir Au bord de l’Eau(1885)
Image: Courtesy of Simon Dickinson

Simon Dickinson confirmed it sold six pieces including the booth’s showpiece: Pierre Auguste Renoir’s Au Bord de l’Eau (1885).

Su Xiaobai Turquoise-Blue (2015)
Image: Courtesy of the artist and Pearl Lam Gallery

Pearl Lam Gallery, a first time TEFAF exhibitor, who has galleries in Hong Kong and Shanghai, sold works, each priced around $250,000, that were fresh from the studio of artist Su Xiaobai.

Paul Delvaux, La grande Allée(1964)
Image: Courtesy of Thomas Salis Art & Design, Salzburg

Paul Delvaux’s La grand Allée (1964), sold for over $2.2 million (€2 million) by Salzburg’s Thomas Salis Art & Design ​to a German collector.

Gunther Uecker Weiss (White)(1988)
Image: Courtesy of Cardi Gallery, Milan.

Milan’s Cardi Gallery sold a Gunther Uecker abstraction, Weiss (White) from 1968, in the region of its $2.2 million (€2 million) asking price.

Tornabuoni Arte reported sales including works by: Alberto Biasi (approximately $122,000);  Turi Simeti (about $45,000); Paulo Scheggi; and Lucio Fontana.

Berlin’s Galerie Bastian sold Otto Piene’s Untitled from 1969, to a private collector.