Dutch art fair reports 'record' prices for Van Gogh, Picasso
Photo from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Europe's largest art fair closed its doors with organizers saying that sales, including a rare Van Gogh and works by Picasso and Kees van Dongen, fetched "record prices."
Although a total figure of sale for some of the world's most sought-after artworks could not be given, organizers of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) said that sales ran up to "tens-of-millions of euros."
"It's impossible to tally the total sales as many are not made public," TEFAF organiser Noepy Testa said. "But we have had record sales, running into tens-of-millions of euros."
Top ticket items for sale this year included a rare early Van Gogh, painted when the artist was living in southern Netherlands around 1884, and a multi-million-euro work by abstract art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky.
The US-based gallery selling the Van Gogh, titled "Tete de paysanne a la coiffe blanche" confirmed a buyer, with Dutch media saying the asking price of 4.5 million euros (P273 million) was reached.
Kandinsky's 1910 "Murnau mit Kirche II" was put up for sale by art dealer Robert Landau, who bought the work last year for $45 million (P2.5 billion) at auction at Sotheby's.
It was not known whether a new buyer had been found, but Landau at the fair said that the painting was recently valued at "100 million euros" (P6.06 billion).
Other big ticket names also fetched top prices.
A work on paper by Pablo Picasso called "Femme au tablier" sold for almost two million euros (P121 million), while a painting by Dutch-French artist Kees van Dongen titled "Femme au Chapeau" sold for a "seven-figure sum to a private European collector."
But it was not just paintings fetching top prices. A 17th-century Safavid mirror was sold to the Aga Khan Foundation in Toronto for around 200,000 euros (P12.1 million), organizers said. A Delftware porcelain work previously owned by British fashion photographer Cecil Beaton fetched around 300,000 euros (P18.2 million).
Over the eight-day fair, close to 50,000 visitors flocked to view artwork presented by 270 exhibitors from 22 countries, the organizers said.
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