TEFAF New York Opens to Sold-Out Booths, Strong Crowds, and Palpable Energy, Underscoring Optimism in the Art Market

(New York, NY) May 16, 2026 – With lines stretching down Park Avenue on Thursday, May 14, TEFAF New York made a triumphant return for its tenth anniversary, officially opening the fair's twelfth edition. Following an invite-only Preview Day on May 14 and the public opening on May 15, the fair reports strong momentum, including sold-out booths, seven-figure sales, significant institutional engagement, and packed crowds of collectors, curators, and arts patrons from around the world. 

Bringing together nearly 90 leading international galleries, TEFAF New York presents exceptional works spanning modern and contemporary art, design, jewelry, and antiquities. The fair runs through Tuesday, May 19. 

The opening celebration on Thursday, May 14 also included The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s annual TEFAF Opening Night Benefit, which raised $477,000 to support patient care, research, and education programs at Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Cancer Center. 

ATTENDEES
Notable attendees included Jack Antonoff, Muffie Potter Aston, Josh Baer, Anthony Baratta, Drew Barrymore, Charlotte Barnes, Dennis Basso, Elizabeth and Renee Belfer, Giovanna Battaglia Engelbert, Anderson Cooper, Robert Couturier, Nathan Clements-Gillespie, Michele Oka Doner, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Lisa Fine, Mercedes de Guardiola, John and Amy Griffin, Alison Ross Green, J. Tomilson Hill, Coco Kopelman, Aerin Lauder, Adam Lindemann, Eva Lorenzotti, Michael McCarty, Carlos Mota, Ryan Murphy, Jamie Niven, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Anne Pyne, Jim Reginato, Paterson Sims, Christine Schwarzman, Barbara Tober, and Joel Wachs.

This year's Collectors Preview also welcomed over 100 museum representatives, including Philipp Demandt (Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin), Ann Goldstein (Art Institute of Chicago), Axel Rüger (The Frick Collection), Guillaume Kientz (Hispanic Society Museum and Library), Mason Klein (The Jewish Museum), Max Hollein (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Colin Bailey (The Morgan Library & Museum), Glenn Lowry (The Museum of Modern Art), Renee Price (Neue Galerie), Yu Yeon Kim (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), and John Stuart Gordon (Yale University Art Gallery).

NEW EXHIBITORS
This year, TEFAF New York welcomed nine new exhibitors from around the world, including Larkin Erdmann (Switzerland), FORMS (Hong Kong), Sarah Myerscough Gallery (United Kingdom), Piano Nobile (United Kingdom), Alison Jacques (United Kingdom), Galerie Lelong (France), David Lévy & Associés (Belgium), Macklowe Gallery (United States), and ML Fine Art (Italy). The energy of the fair was felt by first-time participants, with gallery leadership expressing their sentiments on the opening few days with energy and optimism: 

“It’s incredibly exciting for us to be in one of the historic rooms at the Park Avenue Armory, especially in our first year exhibiting at TEFAF New York,” said Benjamin Macklowe, President at Macklowe Gallery. “The room itself was constructed circa the 1880s, which is exactly the period of lighting that we specialize in. So for us, bringing Tiffany back into the Armory— particularly when so many of these historic rooms were designed by Tiffany himself—is really a point of pride.” TEFAF New York is the only fair that is permitted to exhibit in the historic rooms on the Park Avenue Armory’s second floor. 

Added Tzvika Janover, Co-founder of Hong Kong’s high jewelry house FORMS, "We are honored by the response to FORMS at TEFAF New York. For our first presentation at the New York fair, it was especially rewarding to connect with new collectors discovering the house - notably, we sold as many pieces to new collectors as we did to long-standing clients who continue to champion our work on opening day, making it an incredibly meaningful debut at the Park Avenue Armory.’ 

EARLY SALES
Sales kicked off swiftly, with ML Fine Art (Stand 201) placing Andy Warhol’s Mao in the first hour of the fair. Mennour (Stand 305) sold Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale for $2.3 million.

Several booths sold out during the Collectors Preview, including Lévy Gorvy Dayan (Stand 337), Gagosian’s (Stand 350) solo presentation of Kathleen Ryan’s Bad Fruit sculptures, and Thaddaeus Ropac (Stand 345).  All three of Eva Helene Pade’s paintings at Thaddaeus Ropac were placed with U.S. institutions. The artist's larger works are priced in the range of $160,000–200,000.

Gladstone (Stand 344) sold 20 works by Czech painter Anna Zemánková for prices ranging from $75,000 to $125,000. Tina Kim Gallery (Stand 358) sold two paintings by Ha Chong Hyun, one for $390,000 and a second for $250,000; two paintings by Kibong Rhee, each for $100,000; and a trapunto work by Pacita Abad for $200,000. W&K-Wienerroither & Kohlbacher (Stand 308) sold works by Franz West, Gustav Klimt, and Egon Schiele for between five and seven figures. Thomas Gibson Fine Art (Stand 327) sold several pieces to private collectors, including Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure bronze sculpture for $395,000 and John Chamberlain's Honeybee Banquet sculpture for $250,000. Thomas Gibson Fine Art also had great success with prints, selling three linocuts by Claude Flight, ranging from $12,000–35,000, and eight linocuts by Cyril Power, ranging from $6,000–30,000. Richard Saltoun (Stand 374) focused its booth on female surrealist artists, selling a pyrographed wood panel by Canadian artist Mimi Benoit Parent for an asking price of $200,000 and a painting by Puerto Rican artist Cossette Zeno priced at $18,000. The gallery also sold a painting by French artist Valentine Hugo with an asking price of $80,000.

A signature component of TEFAF New York is the intersection of modern & contemporary art with design, jewelry, and antiquities. Design exhibitors received strong interest, including Friedman Benda (Stand 325), which sold Joris Laarman’s wooden Ply Loop Console, Nendo’s hyouri R pendant light, and Frida Escobedo’s Creek Bench (2022). Hostler Burrows (Stand 203) sold Berndt Friberg’s Studio Vases for Gustavsberg (1959-1966), and Modernity (Stand 364) sold Finn Juhl’s Dining Table Judas and Ole Wanscher’s Set of Six T-Chairs both for asking prices of $115,000, and Carl Axel Acking’s Ceiling Lamp Model 981 for an asking price of $42,500. Galerie Chastel-Maréchal (Stand 318) sold the Torsade Coffee Table by Diego Giacometti to an American collector. Galerie Patrick Seguin (Stand 331) sold Jean Prouvé’s Centrale Table. Galerie Jacques Lacoste (Stand 301) sold a few pieces, including Eugène Printz and Jean Dunand’s Dining table in lacquered beech, and Louis Süe and André Mare’s Patou low table in walnut. 

In antiquities, David Aaron (Stand 212) sold a remarkably well-preserved 3,300-year-old ancient Egyptian stele with a list price of $600,000, and Galerie Chenel (Stand 210) sold a Roman marble Torso of a Man, dated to the 1st–2nd century AD. For jewelry, first-time exhibitor to TEFAF New York FORMS (Stand 102) had a very successful debut, including the sale of a standout pair of Diamond and Shakudo Sphere Earrings with 20.24 carat diamonds. 

PROGRAMMING
Beyond exhibitor stands, TEFAF New York offers an engaging program roster, including TEFAF Talks and TEFAF Meet the Experts conversations, included in fair admission. For a full schedule, please visit tefaf.com. 

# # # 

TEFAF New York
Opening Hours
Friday, May 15 – Monday, May 18 | 11 AM – 7 PM
Tuesday, May 19 | 11 AM – 6 PM

Ticket Info: The Ticket Shop for TEFAF New York is now open. Click here to get your tickets.

Online
$62.50 One day single entry
$82.50 Multiple entry
$25 Students

At the door 
$65.00 One day single entry
$85.00 Multiple entry
$27.50 Students

For further information, please visit our website.

# # # 

ABOUT TEFAF  
TEFAF is a not-for-profit foundation that champions expertise, excellence, and diversity in the global art community. This is evidenced by the exhibitors selected for its two fairs, which occur annually in Maastricht and New York. TEFAF is an expert guide for private and institutional collectors, inspiring art lovers and buyers everywhere. 

ABOUT TEFAF NEW YORK
TEFAF New York was founded in early 2016, initially as two annual art fairs in New York at the Park Avenue Armory. Today, TEFAF New York is one singular annual fair that encapsulates modern and contemporary art, jewelry, antiquities, and design, featuring around 90 leading exhibitors from around the globe. Tom Postma Design, celebrated for its work with leading museums, galleries, and art fairs, is responsible for the fair’s innovative design, which has reimagined the spectacular spaces at the historic Park Avenue Armory, giving them a lighter, contemporary look and feel. 

ABOUT TEFAF MAASTRICHT  
TEFAF Maastricht is widely regarded as the world’s premier fair for fine art, antiques, and design, covering 7,000 years of art history, from ancient to contemporary. Featuring over 270 prestigious dealers from some 22 countries, TEFAF Maastricht is a showcase for the finest artworks currently on the market. Alongside the traditional areas of Old Master paintings, antiques, and classical antiquities that cover approximately half of the fair, you can also find modern and contemporary art, photography, jewelry, 20th-century design, and works on paper.  

ABOUT THE BANK OF AMERICA 
Bank of America is one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving nearly 70 million clients with approximately 3,500 retail financial centers, approximately 15,000 ATMs (automated teller machines) and award-winning digital banking with approximately 59 million verified digital users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry leading support to approximately 4 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and more than 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

For more Bank of America news, including dividend announcements and other important information, visit the Bank of America newsroom and register for news email alerts.

ABOUT AXA XL Global Lead Partner
AXA XL Insurance is the P&C (Property & Casualty) and specialty risk division of AXA, known for solving even the most complex risks. AXA XL offers traditional and innovative insurance solutions and services in over 200 countries and territories. 

As part of its specialty risk offering, AXA XL protects a range of objects, including fine art, antiquities, antiques, jewelry, watches, classic cars, raw and polished gemstones, and bullion, from thousands of years to weeks old. 

Over the past 50 years and well into the future, AXA XL, a leading global insurer of fine art and specie, has and will continue to redefine how it serves and services its collector, museum, corporate, gallery, conservator, and artist clients across Europe, the UK, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific region, with a sincere consideration for the way valuable objects are insured and cultural patrimony is protected.  

PRESS CONTACTS  

GLOBAL  
Head of Communications  
Magda Grigorian | [email protected]
PR Coordinator 
Mirthe Sportel | [email protected]

BELGIUM / LUXEMBOURG  
Charlotte De Bruijn | [email protected] 
Alexis Gilson | [email protected]

FRANCE / MONACO / SWITZERLAND 
Gaëlle de Bernède | [email protected]

GERMANY / AUSTRIA / SWITZERLAND 
Britta Fischer | [email protected] 

ITALY 
Roberta Barbaro | [email protected]

NETHERLANDS  
Noepy Testa | [email protected] 
Heidi Vandamme | [email protected] 

SPAIN  
Julián Hernández Miranda | [email protected]  
Héctor San José | [email protected]  

UK  
Cultural Communications | [email protected] 

USA  
Sharp Think | [email protected]