The event started in 1975 as The Pictura Fine Art Fair with 28 international exhibitors who specialized in Old Master paintings and medieval sculptures. In 1996, the fair changed its name to “TEFAF Maastricht.” And, as if to reinforce the new name and its prominent place in the international art world, Portrait of a Young Man by Rembrandt was sold at this fair for $4.8 million.

Today, The European Fine Art Fair offers an unrivalled chance to meet some of the world’s most prestigious fine art dealers in one of Europe’s oldest cities. Additionally, fairgoers can see original exhibitions and attend lectures and musical events. And of course, there’s the opportunity to view and to buy genuine masterpieces—from paintings to objets d’art, all of which reflect 6,000 years of excellence in the world of applied art.

On opening day of The European Fine Art Fair 2007, during an invitation-only private view, some 8,000 art connoisseurs from around the world gathered for first looks and earliest opportunities to purchase original fine art from 220 exhibitors from 15 countries. The crowd comprised Dutch and British royalty, including Princess Marilene of Orange and Princess Michael of Kent; at least one sheik; fashion designers, including Givenchy; supermodels; high-ranking government officials from Russia, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy; interior design stars Tony Ingrao, Randy Kemper, Bruce Bierman and Sig Bergamin; more than a few ambassadors; NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer; and some of the world’s most influential collectors including Michael Lynch, Irwin and Rosalyn Engelman, and Roland and Anne Marie Gillion Crowez.

Also there:representatives from many of the world’s leading museums including the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Louvre, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin; the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; and the Shanghai Museum, to name just a few.

Beyond the art, The European Fine Art Fair itself is an experience. Islands of colorful tulips anchored “streets” lined with dealer shops within the enormous Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre. On opening day, there was nouvelle cuisine in the modern art area, and traditional foods near the Old Masters. A small army of servers carried trays of wine, water and juices, and The European Fine Art Fair staff navigated bicycles from one end of the fair to the other. Oyster shuckers, their belts holding a bucket of fresh, raw oysters; a peppermill; and another bucket for shells, made their way through the huge hall, surrounded by small crowds.

A rough estimate of the total value at the 2007 fair was over $1 billion, and that total excludes the magnificent contemporary jewelry.

The breadth of original fine art on display was amazing. Visitors saw Adam and Eve, painted by Albrecht Durer in 1504 and Peter Blake’s Marcel Duchamp’s World Tour:Playing Chess with Tracey (2003-2005). There was a very rare dinner table and four matching chairs by Michel de Klerk, one of the most important designers of the Amsterdam School, and some Charlotte Perriand ash and aluminum bookshelves (1960) that have never before been on the market. Louise Bourgeois’ giant Spider (1997) loomed over the Hauser & Wirth space like a fascinating nightmare. The spider was listed at $4 million. Alessandro Cesati exhibited an exquisite collection of iron door and chest locks. Softly glimmering with gold, silver, copper and bronze, they looked like giant, intricate gems in their large, glass cases. Nearby, in the Epoque Fine Jewels booth, real gems glittered in an Art Nouveau dog collar plaque signed by Rene Lalique (circa 1900); the piece featured blue enamel thistle flowers and prickly, diamond-covered leaves. And both Bulgari and Graff displayed a king’s ransom of stunningly flawless and colorful diamonds.

The most talked-about piece at last year’s show was a $45 million, museum-quality Renoir. Among the Roses was painted in 1882 and exhibited by New York’s Acquavella Galleries, Inc. But at an art event so vast and varied, it was only one of many pieces to garner attention. Indeed, nearby were three Monets, a Degas, a Matisse landscape, a Picasso bronze and a Calder sculpture.

The largest known painting by Salvador Dali was a fair favorite, too. Priced at more than $3.5 million, The Colossus, symbolizing Spain, is giving birth to various monuments and works of art representing the cultural contributions of that nation.

Jan Lievens’ Portrait of a Young Girl (1631) was another of the must-see items in last year’s show. This work, painted when Lievens was at the height of his career and working closely with Rembrandt, was sold to an American private collector for about $4.1 million. Of the sale, David Koetser, of David Koetser Gallery, Zurich, said, “The portrait of a girl by Jan Lievens has been bought by one of the top American collectors of Dutch painting. His new acquisition will connect one picture with another.”

Renowned European designer Axel Vervoordt brought art from his castle, ‘s-Gravenwezel and his spacious gallery in a restored industrial malt works complex on the banks of a canal in Antwerp. The Old Master paintings in the Schloss Fuschl collection can be yours during vacation—if you stay in Hotel Schloss Fuschl, a renovated chateau near Salzburg in Austria; it’s the everyday home to these pieces.

The most expensive archaic Chinese bronze ever to come on the market was offered by Littleton & Hennessy for $12 million. The 2,500-year-old figure of a tapir, a pig-like mammal that became extinct in China 10,000 years before the piece was cast, is a wine vessel. Inlaid with gold and turquoise, it dates to the 4^th century BC and survived the turbulent and brutal period of the Warring States. There is only one other known similar piece, in a museum in Taiwan. The one for sale at TEFAF evidently was cherished and lovingly caressed for ages—its nose rubbed smooth. It sold for a record price to a Chinese collector. “The new purchaser is considering presenting it to a major Chinese museum,” said James Hennessy.

The European Fine Art Fair draws fine art dealers who are not only knowledgeable but also willing to share that knowledge. And for that reason, this art fair can be surprisingly intimate. Fine art dealers readily offer magnifying glasses to better reveal details of paintings. One could get close enough to Simon Luttichuys’ Still Life (in its original 17^th-century ebony frame) to count the bubbles in the glass of beer. Other experts share what they know about the history of items. London fine art dealers Harris Lindsay offered the Arundel Table, an extraordinary piece originally owned by Thomas Howard, 14^th Earl of Arundel. It was created from a pair of marble table supports attributed to François Dieussart, c. 1625, and an inscribed top, 1754, dedicated to the memory of a family dog.

A Roman marble bust in the Jean-David Cahn space led to an impromptu lesson in provenance. The bearded figure, which dates to the early 2^nd century AD, very probably represents the Greek hero Odysseus, Cahn said. At the end of the 18^th century, the bust was in Lord Bristol’s possession; a drawing by the German artist Johann Tischbein of Bristol’s collection of antique busts led Cahn to this conclusion. Careful comparison shows this was one of those busts, he added. Trained as an archeologist, Cahn is used to following leads—at auctions and estate sales and in the field on excavations.

Catherine Weiss guided a visitor to an intriguing piece in The Weiss Gallery space—Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt the Younger. Important in life, his portrait significant now, Wyatt was from one of the most powerful families in Great Britain with close ties to King Henry VIII. The asking price for the portrait: $10 million.

Weiss pointed to an X-ray image that revealed some secrets of this painting. “You can tell who the artist was by the under-drawing,” Weiss explained, indicating the beautifully rendered sketch in silverpoint and charcoal. The X-ray shows exquisite detail, she added. “He really only had to draw the outline of the head and the ear, but, look, he drew hair even.”

The X-ray was part of a scientific investigation to determine the rightful artist. “It is a fully acknowledged Holbein,” Weiss said.

Scrutiny has a place at The European Fine Art Fair. Vetting committees rigorously check every item for quality, condition and authenticity. For instance, Marc Chagall’s Le Paysage d’hiver was approved by the Comite Marc Chagall before being displayed. There are 24 such vetting committees consisting of some 142 international experts specialized in each field present at The European Fine Art Fair. They examine every object on display. Works of art that don’t meet the high standards of The European Fine Art Fair are removed from the stands and locked away until after the fair.

Additionally, the Art Loss Register, the world’s largest database of stolen art, checks the objects against lists of reported art theft. All this means collectors can acquire works of fine art at the fair with the highest level of confidence.

In the end, and after all, The European Fine Art Fair is about art changing hands.

The Louvre Museum in Paris bought Head of a Young Boy by Gottlieb Schick, dating from 1800-1802, immediately after the opening of the private view. Holy Spirit, Danzig, painted by the German artist Fritz Stoltenberg in 1880, was one of several 19^th-century pictures that went to new owners on the opening night. The Fine Art Society of London sold this to an unnamed American buyer.

By the close of the very first day, Old Master paintings sales included a 17^th-century painting of Saint Jerome by Matthias Stomer; Jan Steen’s The Banquet of Anthony and Cleopatra; and Isaac and Rebecca by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, a pupil and friend of Rembrandt.

On the first night, Johnny van Haeften, the London-based specialist dealer in Dutch and Flemish Old Master painting, sold An Italianate Landscape with Travelers on a Path by the 17^th-century Utrecht painter Jan Both. The picture, regarded as one of the highlights of last year’s show, went to an American private collector for about $5.4 million.

Fine art dealers of modern and contemporary art also did well. Femme à la Coiffe d’Arlèsienne sur fond vert, a 1936 oil on canvas by Picasso, sold for $15 million by Wildenstein, New York to a private collector. The Mayor Gallery of London sold two works by Claes Oldenburg, Liver Sausage and Slices, dating from 1961, and the artist’s 1967 piece Green Ladies Shoes, the latter for more than $1.3 million.

Jean-David Cahn, of Basel, said he had his best fair ever, selling amongst other items, a larger-than-life-size torso of a Greek male figure. Made of marble and dating to the 2^nd century BC, it was discovered on the seabed and sold at TEFAF to a private collector.

In The Weiss Gallery space, with its wealth of Tudor and Stuart portraiture, a picture by Daniel Mytens of Lady Mary Feilding (circa 1620) was attracting attention from potential buyers. When asked how she could bear to part with this painting, which she admitted has a place in her heart, Catherine Weiss replied quite simply:“You have to sell if you want to sell again.”

Photographs courtesy of Loraine Bodewes