Art-Fair Prices Cut by 20 Percent as Collectors Buy Old Masters

By Scott Reyburn

March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Dealers at the world’s biggest art and antiques fair cut prices of some modern works by as much as 20 percent as collectors sink cash into Old Masters, whose prices have held steady to defy the economic gloom.

Paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and Gabriel Metsu were sold at the European Fine Art Fair -- Tefaf -- in the Dutch city of Maastricht. Modern art dealers reduced prices, while contemporary-art exhibitors were less busy, with some sticking to 2008 levels even after auction prices declined between 30 and 50 percent. Many dealers said that buyers were taking longer to decide, with attendance down 5 percent on 2008.

“The disparity in price rises between Old Masters and contemporary has been crazy,” Richard L. Feigen, a New York dealer, said in an interview. “Some Old Master pictures haven’t increased in price in the last 20 years and there are people with a lot of cash at Tefaf looking for a place to park it.”

While works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Emil Nolde and Wassily Kandinsky all sold, dealers said the fair did not have the same exuberance seen at the Christie’s International auction of the Yves Saint Laurent collection in Paris last month. The 22nd annual edition of the fair is the first test of whether the YSL auction was a one-off, or an indication that wealthy people are again looking at art as an alternative investment.

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