TEFAF Aims to Prove There’s Nothing Like a Real-Life Art Fair
Original article written for NY Times
The New Orleans-based art dealer Bill Rau is bringing van Gogh’s 1884 portrait “Tête de Paysanne à la Coiffe Blanche” (“Head of a peasant woman with a white cap”), a portrait painted one year before one of his famous works, “The Potato Eaters,” and in a similar style.
Although he has never exhibited at the fair before, Mr. Rau feels that TEFAF is the best setting for him to offer the painting, because of the fair’s extensive vetting process.
“The amount of paperwork and research that they require us to bring is mind-boggling,” he said.
Mr. Rau said that he’s convinced that real-world fairs were still important to the market. “What I’ve discovered about TEFAF is that being there brings items much more prestige,” he added. “People say, ‘Oh, you’re going to TEFAF?’ In fact, we’ve already sold a number of pieces because we were planning to take them to TEFAF. So now we’ll have the chance to bring something else.”
