TEFAF Returns With Majesty in an Uncertain Market

A medieval manuscript unseen for 60 years, hand-painted by the renowned French illuminator Jean Pichore and his workshop, is one of the most spectacular exhibits at the 38th annual edition of the TEFAF Maastricht fair, which previewed to invited guests on Thursday.

“This is world history,” said Dr. Jörn Günther, an illuminated manuscript dealer in Switzerland, pointing to an illustration in a book of hours. It is of a trim, young King Henry VIII of England kneeling next to an angel and Catherine of Aragon, the first of his six wives.

“With manuscripts you really can get close to the big figures of the Middle Ages,” Günther said, as one of his staff members leafed through the book with this image, dating from about 1509, which had been owned and handled by Queen Catherine. “It’s different from a portrait. It’s more intimate.”

Catherine was one of Tudor England’s more consequential queens. The failure of Henry and Catherine’s marriage to produce a surviving male heir — or an annulment from the pope — resulted in Henry’s split from the Church of Rome. The manuscript was priced at 1.4 million Swiss Francs, about $1.6 million.

The venerable Dutch event from the European Fine Art Foundation, running through March 20, this year features 273 exhibitors from 21 countries, and is the last remaining major international fair primarily devoted to pre-20th-century art and objects. (TEFAF also holds a smaller sister fair focused on modern and contemporary art in New York in May.) This year’s edition faced formidable headwinds. Old masters have fallen out of fashion with private collectors, the international art market is in a slump. President Trump’s trade wars have also rattled markets and upended long-held ties between the United States and Europe.