Dealer interview.(ANTIQUES)(Ben Janssens)(Interview)

Can you describe the origins and evolution of TEFAF/Maastricht?

In 1975 a number of the world's leading Old Masters dealers, such as Johnny van Haeften of London and the late Robert Noortman of Maastricht, believed there was a critical need for a major fair run by dealers. They established the Pictura fair which evolved into the European Fine Art Fair (or TEFAF/Maastricht Foundation), and their model of a dealer-run fair has thrived. The fair began with 28 dealers in 1975. Last year, there were 227. To give you an idea of attendance, in 1989 there were 17,000 visitors to the fair. We recorded 73,406 last year.

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Collectors, curators, and dealers around the world eagerly await the annual art market report published by the foundation. Can you tell us something about the forthcoming report?

This year's report, Globalization and the Art Market: Emerging Economies and the Art Trade in 2008, will include a chapter dedicated to the recent downturn. The report has been prepared by Clare McAndrew, a cultural economist specializing in the fine and decorative art market who is editor of the financial quarterly magazine Wealth. Her findings are based on an extensive international survey of dealers in addition to information from auction houses and other databases.

How have you helped steer TEFAF away from its strictly Old Masters image to reflect the current interest in twentieth-century works?

We listened carefully to what people were saying and the feedback we received indicated a need to strengthen the area of design. We decided to launch a separate twentieth-century design division of ten dealers as well as a special exhibition re-creating some of the interiors of the Jachthuis Sint Hubertus (known as Country Residence/Museum Jachthuis Sint Hubertus), near Otterlo and once owned by the Kroller-Muller family, the famous Dutch collectors. Now a museum, the house and its furniture were designed about 1915 to 1920 by the renowned Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage, who is considered the father of modern architecture in the Nether lands. His theories inspired the leaders of the de Stijl movement and others. Since the museum has never loaned examples before, this should be an exciting event.