TEFAF Maastricht is the offspring of two Dutch fairs launched in the mid-1970s: Pictura and De Antiquairs International. Pictura was the first international fine art fair in the Netherlands and launched in 1975. Antiqua, an antiques fair launched in 1978, became De Antiquairs International in 1982. Both fairs merged in 1985 under the banner of the Antiquairs International and Pictura Fine Art fair, held at Maastricht's Eurohal. A 10-day event organized by dealers under the umbrella of the non-profit European Fine Art Foundation, TEFAF Maastricht was subsequently launched at the MECC in 1988, with 89 participating dealers, the majority of them Dutch. It grew to rival known art centers like Paris and London and targeted wealthy collectors in Germany and Switzerland. Though the fair was founded as a fair for dealers in old masters art, more than half the participants have other specialties, including antiquities, furniture, decorative artwork from medieval times to today, rare books and jewellery. By 2014, 43% of dealers at TEFAF specialized in antiques (119 out of 274 galleries). A shortage of museum-quality historic paintings and collectors' shifting tastes have resulted in an increasing emphasis on more recent material. In 2000, for the first time TEFAF launched an independent study about the size and structure of the European art and antiques market, resulting in the annual publication of the Art Market Report. For years, the fair was considered "a footnote in the annual art market calendar", according to the
Wall Street Journal. During the art market boom, collectors put a premium on high-profile contemporary art sales like the
Art Basel fairs in Switzerland and Miami and the biannual modern and contemporary art sales of
Christie's and
Sotheby's in London and New York. The fair celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012 and is today regarded, along with Swiss modern and contemporary art fair
Art Basel, as the world's leading art fair. In 2016, TEFAF formed a ten-year partnership with the
Limburg provincial government, the city of Maastricht and the MECC Maastricht convention centre to improve the city's infrastructure. Participating dealers are admitted only after a strict selection process. TEFAF Maastricht's vetting system involves about 175 international experts in 29 different categories, who examine every work of art in the Fair for quality, authenticity and condition. A number of objects deemed inauthentic or of "poor quality" are regularly placed in storage until fair's end. Moreover, TEFAF has joined the leading platform for stolen art to guarantee transparency towards collectors. Representatives from about 225 major museums like the
Louvre in Paris, the
Prado in Madrid, the
Frick Collection in New York,
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the
Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the
Getty Center in Los Angeles regularly visit the fair. TEFAF's wealthy visitors, many of whom fly in on private planes, have included
Saud bin Muhammed Al Thani,
Silvio Berlusconi,
Calvin Klein,
Brad Pitt,
Kanye West and
Michael Schumacher. One of the youngest buyers was 13-year-old Brahm Wachter from New York, who in 2003 bought a Rembrandt etching at TEFAF, using the money he received from his
bar mitzvah. One of the exhibitors at 2025 TEFAF Maastricht is entirely dedicated to Australia’s First Nations art which was painted for an audience against the backdrop of 20th century colonialism. ==Expansion plans==