TEFAF 2026 Sees Major Museum Acquisitions Spanning Centuries And Disciplines

A wax portrait of Hieronymus Baumgartner the Younger, Town Councillor in Nuremberg, by Carl Matthäus, sold by Kunstkammer Georg Laue to the Rijksmuseum; 

A 14th-century marble kneeling figure, sold by Tomasso to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; 

Nero’s Vase, a first-century AD work formerly part of Emperor Nero’s Domus Transitoria residence, sold by Stuart Lochhead Sculpture to Yale University Art Gallery; 

The Memnon Amphora, sold by Plektron Fine Arts AG to the Fondazione Luigi Rovati in Milan; 

The Stele of Medeia, sold by David Aaron to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; 

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts also acquired Oceanus and Tethys — the god of the sea and his consort from Elfriede Langeloh; 

A large, vividly coloured 18th-century tapestry, sold by De Wit Fine Tapestries to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; 

De Wit Fine Tapestries also sold Queen Esther Sends the Royal Decree, a Southern Netherlandish tapestry from the first quarter of the 16th century to the National Trust for Oxburgh Estate in the UK; 

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston also acquired a chinoiserie Portuguese faience plate from São Roque, Lisbon; 

Company School Animal Drawings by William Paterson, was sold by Zebregs&Röell Fine Art and Antiques to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; 

A wall lamp by Gerrit Rietveld was sold by first-time exhibitor Galerie Van den Bruinhorst to the Centraal Museum, Utrecht; 

Tea Caddy "Syntax" (Japanese: 電光羅馬文中次) was sold by Ippodo Gallery to the Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore; 

A chair by Tom Dixon was sold by Ketabi Bourdet to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in France; 

Adrian Alan Ltd announced that Table à Ouvrage, Coquille by François Linke has been acquired by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs; 

Carolle Thibaut–Pomerantz sold a wallpaper panel by Thomas Couture and Jules Desfossé, to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa; 

Bottegantica sold two Giacomo Balla sculptures to KMSKA; 

Galerie Talabardon et Gautier sold a drawing by Aert Cosjin to the Teylers Museum, Haarlem; 

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco acquired a pair of Louis XVI goût arabesque gilt bronze-mounted blue-glazed ‘Terre de Perse’ faïence bowls from Galerie Flore; 

A pair of bronze vases with bats by Hippolyte Ferrat, after a model by Jean-Jacques Feuchère was sold by Galerie Nicolas Bourriaud to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut; 

Robe simultanée by Sonia Delaunay-Terk was sold by Galerie Zlotowski to the Stedelijk Museum in the Netherlands. 

Christ Driving Out the Traders From the Temple by Lavinia Fontana, exhibited by Trinity Fine Art and acquired by The Art Institute of Chicago, becoming the first painting by this female renaissance artist to enter the museum’s collection; 

The Art Institute of Chicago also acquired Hercules Kills by Lamar West from Nicolaas Teeuwisse; 

Nicolaas Teeuwisse also sold Saint Paul by Geoffroy Dumonstier to the Rijksmuseum and The Series of the Sultan’s Caravan to Mecca by Joseph-Marie Vien to the National Gallery in the UK; 

Snake Pitcher by Arthur Craco was sold by Lancz Gallery to the Musée d’Orsay; 

The J. Paul Getty Museum acquired Cuno Amiet’s Portrait of Rosa Luder from Bottegantica; 

Willoughby Gerrish sold Arc-en-ciel No. 5 by Robert Delaunay to the MFA Boston; 

Johann Rottenhammer’s The Entombment was sold by Stephen Ongpin Fine Art to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; 

Stephen Ongpin Fine Art also sold Bacchanal with a Satyr, a Nymph and Putti by Charles-Dominique-Joseph Eisen to the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts; 

The Weiss Gallery sold two paintings depicting a father and son to the Minneapolis Institute of Art; the paintings were separated in 1885 and were first reunited at TEFAF Maastricht; 

The Minneapolis Institute of Art also acquired Madonna and Child with Saint Francis by Francesco Raibolini, called Il Francia, from Rob Smeets; 

Three Men in Classical Robes (recto) and Draft Letter Concerning a Painting Commission by Eleonora de’ Medici (verso) by Peter Paul Rubens was sold by Day & Faber to the King Baudouin Foundation and was subsequently lent to the Rubenshuis in Antwerp; 

Day & Faber also sold Diafanorama with the feast of Purim at the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; 

Still Life with Oranges by Marie Bracquemond was sold by PAVEC to the Saint Louis Art Museum, USA; 

PAVEC also sold Juliette Roche’s Maison et jardin to the Chrysler Museum; 

The Descent of Christ into Limbo by Maerten de Vos was sold by Haboldt & Co to Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation, Houston; 

A Apparition of the Madonna and Child to Saint Frances of Assisi by Mateo Cerezo was sold by Caylus to The Meadows Museum in Dallas; 

Connaught Brown sold Au bord de la mer by Odilon Redon to the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, USA; 

The Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum also acquired Pigeon, 1943 by Picasso from Gallery Utermann; 

The Chrysler Museum of Art acquired J. J. Frey’s Landscape with watercourse and trees from Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art; 

Antonacci Lapiccirella Fine Art also sold Henriette Daux’s Self-Portrait at the Easel to the North Carolina Museum of Art; 

Portrait of the writer Frans Erens by G.H. Breitner was sold by Kunstgalerij Albricht to the Limburgs Museum; 

Traute Rose by Lotte Laserstein and Fisherwoman by Virginie Demont-Breton were both sold by Colnaghi Elliott to the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; 

The Muzeum Susch acquired Eva Helene Pade’s Opstand (Surge) from Thaddaeus Ropac; 

L’homme est en mer by Virginie Demont-Breton was sold by Gallery 19C to the Van Gogh Museum in the Netherlands; Demont-Breton inspired Van Gogh, and this work is the third painting by a female artist to enter the museum’s collection; 

Gallery 19C sold Georges Lemmen’s Portrait of his sister Julie crocheting to the J. Paul Getty Museum; 

Fenix, Art Museum on Migration, Rotterdam acquired Boxer Jack Johnson from Berardi Galleria d’Arte; 

Elise Bruyère’s Portrait of a Young Man was acquired by Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen from Galerie Michel Descours; 

The South East View of Strawberry Hill House, Twickenham by Johann Heinrich Müntz was sold by Thomas Coulborn & Sons to Strawberry Hill House & Garden, London.