MAASTRICHT.- The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), which will be held in the Dutch city of Maastricht from March 7 – 16, 2008, is one of the most influential art and antiques events in the world but is constantly changing and improving to strengthen its already pre-eminent position in the international market.

Although still famed as an Old Master paintings fair, TEFAF’s modern and contemporary art section has expanded hugely. The 2008 Fair at the MECC (Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre) will include museum quality works from the 20th and 21st centuries, including the Surrealist René Magritte’s 1948 painting Les grâces naturelles to be offered for sale by Landau Fine Art from Montreal, Canada.

In 2008, the Fair will launch TEFAF Showcase, a new initiative to promote talented young dealers, by giving recently established galleries the chance to participate on a strictly one-off basis. Seven suitable applicants will gain invaluable experience of a major international art event by exhibiting in a special pavilion. A total of 80 dealers from 13 countries have applied to take part and a selection committee, composed of TEFAF representatives, private collectors and independent art specialists, will announce the names of the successful candidates in November.

TEFAF will also publish a major report compiled by the London-based expert Dr Clare McAndrew which will give key insights into trends in the international art market. This study is designed to follow up the research published in the 2002 TEFAF report, The European Art Market in 2002: A Survey.

Last year, which was the 20th anniversary of TEFAF’s foundation, 71,000 people from all over the world visited the Fair, including curators from many of Europe and North America ’s major museums and leading international collectors. During the event 305 private planes landed at Maastricht airport, a 45 percent increase on 2006.

In 2008, over 220 leading dealers from 15 countries will exhibit art and antiques worth over US$1 billion, selling paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, classical antiquities, illuminated manuscripts, jewelry, textiles, porcelain, glass, silver and other works of art. They will range from 3,000 year-old antiquities to contemporary works including the Chinese artist Zhang Qikai’s 2007 painting Panda in Beetle, which will be for sale on the stand of Marlborough Galerie of Zurich.