Belgium

BRAFA’s new Expo base hailed as a success as Belgian fair returns to face-to-face business

From mid-June Brussels will be a hive of activity on the art and antiques front with plenty on offer to interest residents and draw visitors to the city.

With Brussels’ major art and antiques fair BRAFA postponed from its usual January slot until June, a group of exhibitors have got together to present a foretaste of the type of pieces on offer later in the year at Brussels Expo in galleries around the city under the title Brussels Art Walk supported by BRAFA.

Certain areas became hubs for the manufacture of toys, such as Nuremberg and Erzgebirge in Germany.

Found covered in grime in a Portuguese auction house, a three quarter-length portrait of a dark-haired lady by Dutch artist Willem Wissing (1655-1709) has been restored to its former glory by a Belgian dealership and the identity of its sitter revealed as a British aristocrat.

La Biennale fair opens in Paris this week at the Grand Palais Ephémère and runs from November 26-December 5.

This bronze head of Buddha, formerly in a private Belgium collection since the 1970s, is priced at £75,000 from Antwerp gallery Marcel Nies Oriental Art.

A rare standing figure from the Yuat River area of Papua New Guinea was the star of the show at a Brussels auction.

A large 15th century altarpiece from a church in southern Belgium has been sold in Brussels for a six figure sum.

Before leaving as a missionary to China, the Flemish missionary Mon Van Genechten (1903-74) was a student of Dirk Baksteen, Sir Frank Brangwyn and Maurice Denis.

Staffordshire blue and white ware, figures and Leeds creamware will be among a selection of English ceramics featured in Maison Jules’ large mixed-discipline auction of art, antiques and vintage items to be held online over three days from May 16-18 in Gent, Belgium.

Tintin was a major player in a sale of Comic Strip art staged in Belgium.

Several surprises emerged in the tribal art sale held by Cologne auction house Lempertz (24% buyer’s premium) in a recent sale held in Brussels.

This Ming ink and colour on silk painting of Shakyamuni Buddha, offered for sale by Rob Michiels (27.5% buyer’s premium) in Bruges on February 15, is thought to be part of an imperial order made in the short reign of Emperor Jingtai (1449-57).

A group of objects belonging to dealers who took part in the BRAFA art fair in Brussels were seized following an investigation by Interpol.