5 Outstanding Artworks at TEFAF Maastricht 2025

Elaborate floral decorations, flutes of white wine, and freshly shucked oysters made for a typical scene at The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF)’s Maastricht fair, which got the first of its two VIP preview days underway yesterday, March 13th.

Now in its 38th edition, TEFAF Maastricht 2025 sits among the senior citizens of the art fair world and has a formidable reputation in the industry. The fair’s claim to represent “7,000 years of art history” is not just a tagline, but a serious declaration of intent that it achieves with remarkable consistency: Everything from Old Masters through to jewelry, rare books, sculpture, antiquities, and contemporary art can be perused across the MECC convention center.

At the 2025 edition of the fair—which features 273 galleries from 21 countries—discoveries, oddities, and museum-quality items abound. As well as works by famous names such as Vincent van Gogh, Titian, Diego Velázquez, and Rembrandt van Rijn, a slew of works from across different slices of art history is everywhere. “The depth of the fair in terms of quality and also subject matter means that there’s almost something for everyone,” said Robert Bowman, owner of Bowman Sculpture, which has been exhibiting at the fair for a quarter of a century. He added: “You get a lot of serious collectors and museum directors who say, ‘If there’s one fair I’m going to go to, it’s TEFAF.’” Among the standouts at the gallery’s booth, which is presenting two centuries’ worth of sculpture, is Sarah Bernhardt’s haunting plaster work Autoportrait (1870).

While TEFAF is perhaps best known for historical works, it would be a mistake to think that the fair is not looking forward. New managing director Dominique Savelkoul (TEFAF’s fifth managing director in four years), formerly the head of the Belgian museum Mu.ZEE, has stated her plan to encourage next-gen collectors to the MECC. This is highlighted through the fair’s Showcase section, launched in 2008, which this year features 10 galleries that have operated for 10 years or less. Also of note this year is the fair’s digital “Insider’s Guide,” which spotlights artworks under €20,000 ($21,728).

Contemporary art, too, maintains a strong presence with enough galleries in the category to form a small fair of their own. As well as blue-chip names such as White Cube and Skarstedt, highlights include Marianne Boesky Gallery’s presentation of new works by Danielle Mckinney (in dialogue with Edward Hopper) and new sculptures by Ken Mihara at A Lighthouse Called Kanata.

Contemporary-leaning galleries are also taking the opportunity presented by the fair to append historical components to their current programming. At the Parisian gallery Mennour’s booth, works by the likes of Alberto Giacometti and David Hockney are shown alongside ultra-contemporary names such as Alicja Kwade and Petrit Halilaj. “The idea is this confrontation, the porosity between modernity and antiques,” said gallery owner Kamel Mennour. “I like the idea of this juxtaposition. For me it was very important to be close to this idea of what people are expecting to see here so I try to be Mennour, but in [a] different way.”

Indeed, TEFAF’s greatest asset is its breadth and exceedingly high standards (its entry process and vetting committee have a fearsome reputation). Recent stock market volatility and tariff changes created tension in the weeks preceding the fair. And yet gallery anxieties appeared to be allayed by the appearance of a buzzing VIP day crowd. With a bounty of blue-chip items on view—the fair’s most expensive work is tipped to be Pablo Picasso’s Les Dormeurs (1965), with a price “exceeding” $50 million at Landau Fine Art’s booth—dealers will hope that the initial energy on the ground will be met with a similar vigor when it comes to transactions.

Here, Artsy picks out five outstanding works from the fair, which runs through Wednesday, March 19th.

Mary Cassatt, Girl with a Banjo, 1894

M.S Rau

Booth 534

According to Old Masters specialist Mercè Valderrey Art and the Athena Art Foundation, the participation of women artists at this year’s edition of TEFAF has “nearly doubled” compared to 2024: More than 500 works by women artists are exhibited by almost 100 booths at the fair. While this is still less than half of the exhibitors at the fair, it does nonetheless yield some exceptional highlights. Among them is this exceptional pastel-on-board work by American Impressionist Mary Cassatt, Girl with a Banjo (1894).

This tender work showcases Cassatt’s mastery of pastels, which she was encouraged to use by her friend Edgar Degas in the 1880s. By the 1890s, Cassatt had established herself as one of the foremost American women artists. This work encapsulates the artist’s enduring and touching focus on the lives of women, often in domestic and everyday settings.

“It’s so skillfully rendered and so delicate and so sensitive, but I also interpret it as truly kind of an early feminist artwork which makes it particularly special,” said Rebecca Rau, vice president of acquisitions at M.S. Rau. “The scale and refinement and the palette are so unique and so specific. I love these really warm, deep kind of burnt sienna, burnt umber hues that I don’t often associate with her.”

The work, which is priced at €4.5 million ($4.88 million), is one of a cluster of hefty artworks at the New Orleans gallery’s booth. Works by Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Claude Monet are among those on view here.

Richard Saltoun

Booth 704

Richard Saltoun is showing a solo booth of late Palestinian artist Juliana Seraphim, one of the leading 20th-century Middle Eastern modernists. The gallery’s tightly arranged survey of work from across Seraphim’s career sits in the Focus section of the fair, dedicated to curated presentations of single artists or concepts.

After being displaced in 1948, Seraphim moved to Beirut as a teenager. She attended classes with the esteemed Lebanese painter Jean Khalifé, who would organize Seraphim’s first exhibition. The artist emerged in the 1960s and mainly depicted women in a style that is often compared to Surrealism, combining dreamlike settings with a distinctively female sensuality.

“Her work is characterized by these women set amongst these sort of fantastical, imaginary, architectural worlds,” said Richard Saltoun director Niamh Coglan. In The Eye (1970)—one of the few works available for purchase by the artist from the 1970s—a giant eye casts protection on a woman amid an ambiguously austere cityscape.

The work, which is priced at €80,000 ($86,858), encapsulates the feminine touch and freewheeling imagination that came to define much of the artist’s oeuvre. “The images in my paintings come from deep within me; they are surreal and unexplainable,” the artist said in an interview for The Woman Artist in Lebanon, a 1987 book by Helen Khal. “I want to portray a woman’s world and how important love is to a woman. Few men understand the quality of love a woman seeks. I try to show them.”

Camille Pissarro, La servante assise dans le jardin d’Éragny, 1884

Alon Zakaim Fine Art

Booth 458

One of an abundance of Impressionist works on view at the fair, Camille Pissarro’s La servante assise dans le jardin d’Éragny (1884) was executed at a turning point in the artist’s career. The landscapes that he earned renown for in prior decades had now developed into more close-up figurative depictions of moments and places.

Here, a servant watches lovingly over two children in a garden. The maid’s head is turned away from the viewer as the children play, casting a protective gaze. Her watchful demeanor is mirrored by another woman in the background, who is gardening. Painted shortly after Pissarro moved to Éragny (where he would spend the rest of his life), the painting is a prime example of the artist’s signature flourishes: rich foliage, dappled ochres and greens, and a simplicity in its setting that brings an emphatic realism to this Impressionist work.

The painting is priced at €1.3 million ($1.4 million) and is part of London gallery Alon Zakaim Fine Art’s strong booth of mainly 19th- and 20th-century art. It also includes works by the likes of Picasso, Paul Signac, Marc Chagall, and Hans Hoffmann.

Bruce Onobrakpeya, Emiovwo Beroma I; Ore Mu Vbo Gbo; Agogo and Tisha, 1983

TAFETA

Booth 608

One of the most prominent figures of Nigerian modernism and a founding member of the influential Zaria Art Society, Bruce Onobrakpeya is represented in TAFETA’s booth with a stunning patinated four-panel metal work, Emiovwo Beroma I; Ore Mu Vbo Gbo; Agogo and Tisha (1983).

The imagery on the panels references the relief plaques and commemorative heads of the Benin bronzes. These bronze sculptures, which date back as far as the 14th century, once decorated the Royal Palace of Benin, in what is now in Nigeria’s Edo State, but most were taken by British forces in 1897. In his work, Onobrakpeya harkens back to a pre-colonial representation of mythologies and symbolic tradition—themes that the artist draws upon across his practice and are often amalgamated with his personal experiences.

“The subject matter was always deeply African and very relatable to their culture,” said TAFETA director Ayo Adeyinka. The London gallery’s impressive booth includes works by a number of 20th-century African artists featured in the 2024 Venice Biennale main show “Foreigners Everywhere”: Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, Ben Enwonwu, Malangatana Ngwenya, and Susanne Wenger are among the artists exhibited.