In what might seem like a pairing of competitive bedfellows, the organizers of the European Fine Art Fair - that 10-day event going on through Sunday in Maastrict, the Netherlands - announced on Tuesday that they were in talks with Sotheby’s about holding a high-end art and antiques fair in China. The new event, which would be called TEFAF Beijing 2014, would be “planned as a collaboration between Maastricht, the Netherlands-based event, and Sotheby’s recently forged joined venture with China’s state-owned Beijing Ge-Hua Cultural Development Group,’’ the European Fine Art Fair’s e-mail said.
The collaboration with Sotheby’s (which would stand to get a percentage of the fair’s sales) would be a new kind of relationship between an auction house and an art fair. The announcement follows last year’s news that Sotheby’s had entered into a 10-year joint venture with the Beijing GeHua Art Company, a state-owned enterprise, to become the first international auction house in mainland China.
“It has always been TEFAF Maastricht’s aim to be responsive to global trends in the art market,’’ said Ben Janssens, chairman of the fair’s executive committee in an e-mail announcing the possible partnership. “We feel now is the time to further develop our presence in China, one of the most important art markets.’’
