BRUSSELS, January 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Brussels art fair BRAFA held this week in the halls of the old station Tour&Taxis may become a platform to unite collectors from Russia in the future, the exhibit’s president Harold T’Kint de Roodenbecke told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
The fair was created as a place for a dialogue of art devotees and collectors from different countries, and the organizers were happy Russian collectors were also actively involved, he said, adding this was because the exhibition gathered not only classical antiques but also modernism and contemporary art. Proportion of galleries represented at the event confirms this: Belgian organizations make up 38%, foreign galleries — 62%.
BRAFA specializes in ancient art, jewelry antiques, porcelain, engravings, icons, sculpture, carpets and tapestries, antiquarian and modern books, numismatics, photography, and exactly these are the main sphere of Russian collectors’ interest, according to the organizers. This year’s exhibition has seen many Russian interior designers who attended the fair for professional purposes.
Among Russian participants this year is Fine Art SVB fund, whose special field of interest is Old Masters’ painting with an emphasis on the 17th century’s Dutch and Flemish artists, works in its collection varying from engravings, landscapes and religious paintings to genre art and allegories. At the fair the fund presents a number of well-preserved pieces with provenance, including artworks by Rembrandt, Ludolf Bakhuizen and others.
BRAFA that opens the international art calendar welcomes galleries from 130 countries — France (Michel Descours and Bernard Dulon), the U.S., Russia, Belgium (Seghers), Britain (Walpole Fine Arts и Finch & Co), Spain, Italy (Il Quadrifoglio), the Netherlands (Jan Roelofs), Switzerland (Phoenix Ancient Art) and others.
The fair dates back to 1955, and invariably gathers leading collectors and galleries from all over the world and has an exhibition area of 15,400 square meters.