If it required a symbol to characterize The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), the Maastricht art and antiques fair (Netherlands), we would choose, from the 274 exhibitors, the stand of the Brussels Galerie Flore: two rooms separated by a corridor, at the bottom of which is installed a small wall of blue bricks by contemporary artist Jean-Michel Othoniel. The room to its right gives off a strange smell of undergrowth, and for good reason: it was lined with foams and transformed into a cave by a famous florist installed in Belgium, Thierry Boutemy.
Inside have been fitted out of niches which, each, house ceramics, but not just any: they all come out of the imaginary, fertile and kitsch before the hour, by Bernard Palissy (1510-1589) and were made by his followers or his disciples, as we want, between the end of the 16the and the middle of the 18th centurye century. As for the cave, the idea is chipped to Catherine de Médicis, who had made one built one to house, in her palace, the works of the master.
This is, Maastricht: a summary of 7,000 years of art history, know-how, tradition and modernity with, sometimes, some moments of grace. And everything is for sale … That’s good, buyers are there, and, first of all, museums: hundreds of their representatives, conservatives, trusteespatrons come every year and make Maastricht the most visited fair in the world by this clientele of wealthy connoisseurs, led by the Americans.
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