TEFAF Maastricht returned to a live format in June 2022 with 242 exhibitors from 20 countries and a display spanning approximately 7,000 years of art history.
The fair’s 35th edition combined physical stands at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre with digital exhibitor spaces.
Research and conservation beside the market
TEFAF’s programme extended beyond sales through panel discussions and object-focused sessions. Experts addressed conservation decisions, museum deaccessioning and the research required to establish the history and authenticity of works.
One session examined restoration research on Vincent van Gogh’s Poplars near Nuenen. Others focused on works by Jacques C.J. Vanderheyden, Vittore Carpaccio, Diego de Siloé, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Jacqueline Lamba.
Decorative art and design were also represented through objects including a Japonisme table by Ferdinand Barbedienne and Édouard Lièvre, jewellery from the Van Cleef & Arpels heritage collection and a lacquer tray by Katsu Hamanaka.
Museum acquisitions across periods
Museums used the fair to expand their collections. Acquisitions included an Egyptian sculptor’s trial piece of a kneeling pharaoh, Max Ernst’s L’esprit de Locarno, a French sculpture of the Virgin and Child and a work by Cornelis Saftleven depicting a cattle market near Castle Honingen.
Contemporary and modern work also attracted attention, including sculpture by Wang Keping and Ai Weiwei.
The fair was accompanied by a route through museums, historic buildings and cultural institutions across Maastricht, extending the event beyond the exhibition centre.
TEFAF’s 2022 return demonstrated the fair’s dual identity. It remained a major commercial meeting point, but also functioned as a temporary concentration of scholarship, conservation, collecting and public discussion across many periods of art.