While contemporary art fairs open and close at an alarming rate, there was little expectation that The European Fine Art Fair (Tefaf), one of Europe’s oldest and most stately, would be the next to add to the art world’s merry- go-round. So the announcement in February that the single-edition Dutch fair is to open two events in New York came as a surprise to many.
Tefaf New York Fall and Tefaf New York Spring will launch between 22 and 27 October and 4 and 9 May 2017, with the October edition dedicated to older art (from antiquity to the 20th century) and the May fair focusing on contemporary and Modern art and design. Both will be smaller editions of the Maastricht mothership, with around 85 exhibitors. They will be held in New York’s Park Avenue Armory building, replacing the International Show in October and Spring Masters New York in May.
Patrick van Maris, the chief executive of Tefaf, says the move is the result of more than a year’s work with the New York-based advisory firm Artvest Partners. As a result, Artvest and its founders, Michael Plummer and Jeff Rabin, have become Tefaf’s US partners. Artvest ran Spring Masters New York from 2014.
The aim is to tap into a largely new audience. Although much has been made of the reluctance of US collectors to travel to Europe because of the growing threat of terrorism, in reality, not many have recently been making their way to Maastricht. Van Maris estimates that only around 2,500 (3%) of the fair’s 75,000 visitors in 2015 were from the US.
“I think it is a very clever idea to go to New York, because it’s one of the prime markets in the world and New Yorkers just aren’t travelling like they used to,” says Anthony Meyer, the Paris- based Oceanic art expert and longtime Tefaf exhibitor.
The comparatively consistent economic backdrop in the US is also a factor in the decision. “It is still the strongest and most stable economy in the world,” Plummer says. In 2013, Tefaf tested the waters in Beijing (in partnership with Sotheby’s and the state-owned Beijing GeHua Cultural Development Group), but decided against the project, largely because of concerns about the strength of the Chinese art market.
There is, however, competition for ancient-to-Modern commercial events elsewh ere. Tefaf New York Fall is only a couple of weeks after Frieze Masters in London, and dealers in older art, who are less accustomed to doing a fair a fortnight than their contemporary counterparts, may find it a stretch to do both. Meanwhile, the venerable Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris has been revived and turned into an annual, September event by its new president, Henri Loyrette.
Whether or not Tefaf will translateoverseas remains to be seen, but thewill is there. “My initial impressionis that this is very good for New York,to have a growing private secondarymarket base that is not orchestrated bythe auction houses,” says the New Yorkbaseddealer Elizabeth Dee.