Held each spring in Maastricht, the European Fine Art Fair - TEFAF - is widely regarded as the finest art and antiques fair in the world. For a week, the very best of what the market has to offer, from Old Masters to modern design, gathers under one roof.
What sets it apart is the rigor. Every object is vetted by panels of experts before the doors open, so a visitor can wander among works of extraordinary quality with rare confidence in what they are seeing. It is, in effect, a museum where everything happens to be for sale.
You need not be a buyer to benefit. To walk the aisles is a master class in connoisseurship - an education in quality, provenance, and the trained eye. For anyone who loves beautiful things, it is one of the great pilgrimages.
Originally published in View AZ Highlife Magazine, Aug / Sep 2007.