MAASTRICHT.- Sales for Charles Ede Ltd at TEFAF Maastricht show that buyers can be as eclectic as the antiquities they purchase.

“The magnificent Egypto-Romano bronze basin we exhibited this year sold to a long established and discerning client to for his museum in the south of France. He declared it the best piece in the fair,” says Charles Ede managing director Martin Clist.

That Holy Grail among the art trade, a new young collector, bought a delicately modelled Hellenistic marble head of a Ptolemaic queen and aims to develop a collection. “He told us that Maastricht is the ideal location for young collectors because of the range of pieces being offered by leading dealers in the field,” said Clist.

The gallery also revealed that an established New York collector acquired a sizeable Egyptian bronze Apis bull, while an extremely refined Cycladic head went to a client that the gallery first met when exhibiting at the new TEFAF New York Fall fair.

“We are one of the few antiquities dealerships that stands at every TEFAF fair, and our symbiotic relationship pays off because clients like to find us wherever they go to the best events. These two sales are clear evidence of this,” says Clist.

Charles Ede will return to the TEFAF New York Spring fair in May with a catalogue of works that will sit well alongside the contemporary galleries who dominate the fair.

“We want to share our enthusiasm for ancient artefacts with collectors of all stripes, and are having considerable success in showing how the classical world can relate closely to Contemporary art and other spheres,” says Clist.

He and his colleagues will also unveil two important acquisitions by America institutions at the New York fair.