Inside the $1 Billion Art Fair: The Hidden Treasures

As you and I go deeper into our visit to Tefaf, we continue to discover extraordinary works of art and this episode is no exception. From magnificent baroque masterpieces to beautiful paintings, exquisite glass and crystals, remarkable jewelry and many other hidden treasures, every object has a story and together we will try to uncover it. As always at the end of this video I will share the piece that impressed me the most and I would love to know which one became for you the favorite too. Let me know in the comments and now let's begin with this incredible collection of objects. And we start by visiting this stand with this magnificent tapestry, it's monumental, absolutely beautiful and with colors so vivid and also this complete set, this decorative majesty that we have here. Several vessels in very hard stone, probably porphyry stone which was one stone that was very valuable in ancient times and also this piece that looks like a fragment of an Egyptian, some kind of relief with a beautiful also frame built with in bronze, golden bronze. The console is absolutely stunning with incredible reliefs and very well crafted, also gilded, gold gilded, so it's absolutely amazing all this set. But amazing is also this stand that we see here with this incredible oriental, I would say this is almost like a samovar but it's not, but it's something that can contain liquid, so probably to have some tea or any other thing to drink. The beautiful comet is absolutely stunning and look to the feet with the shape of the small fishes is absolutely curious and beautiful. These two vases also that are in each side are absolutely beautiful, they also have gold mounts in bronze but the comet it's absolutely beautiful with the beautiful wood. You know, visiting this art fair is a completely surprise because one stand after another you have so many different things. Here we do have a stand with several more religious pieces but then we look to the left and we find this beautiful, beautiful counter. This counter is with several, several panels in each draw in on the top that is painted and painted and it shows different scenes from mythology, from Diana, the hunting, from Hercule, so every panel is a story and look to the detail how the gold details are in harmony with the red of the wood and with the panels. Also this can open so could be something that could be used to write, for a person to write. So it's a beautiful, beautiful piece of furniture and normally also all these drawers would be used to keep objects from a collector so sometimes this was not only just a piece of decoration but was used to keep precious things. Beautiful, beautiful is this small assemble of small little objects made in silver and ivory and coral and we do have here each of these objects is, has a story and has details that are just beautiful and when you look to a place like this you really have to be ready to spend a lot of time looking to each other. Here this small altar is made in alabaster or red alabaster so it's a very, very special piece. Beautiful. Here we find the objects that are very, can be very different from each other. Also look to this small, looks like a shoe but it's like a magic shoe from Aladdin with a small bell on it. It's really curious. This is ivory and a beautiful sculpture and here we do have some compasses and this one is very well, it survived very well to our days. It's very interesting and could be used also to get what we say an azimuth. I don't know exactly the word in English but it's something that we can use to guide ourselves with maps. Beautiful crystals and beautiful glasses is what this stand has because those pieces are collection pieces. They are not very functional with the functional use but they are specially decorated, decorative pieces. Some of them are made with blowing air on it and others are just shaped in molds. So the conjunction of the form with the beautiful detail of the colors make those pieces very attractive and very special and very beautiful also. Very next to it there is this stand and those two pieces are ceramic but they are very, very beautiful. This stand is quite interesting because this stand is a Japanese stand so these big forms follow the Japanese tradition of making very big ceramic vases. They are made by parts that after they are put together so we can see here there's a small line there horizontal that is probably the line that makes the two parts together. So the pattern also is very modern so we can see those are traditional forms and traditional vases with this size but they were they are more modern and they are with different designs and draws that reflect a more modern taste. But it's quite curious the different pieces that we find in this stand. Also they have a lot of glass pieces with beautiful colors as you can see but then there are some other ceramic and also metallic sculptures so each piece is quite different from the other but they have a very, very interesting different kind of sculptures. This sculpture is amazingly beautiful made by a Japanese artist but it's really, really interesting but they had all these kind of pieces that make this stand a very interesting stand to visit and the energy here in the fine art fair is very interesting because this area looks like that there is a lot of stands with the galleries that are specialized in ceramics and pieces of ceramic like the ones that we are seeing here. So they are all in the same size so it's quite interesting. We have here some also beautiful paintings that are more in a religious line so they show different episodes of the life of Jesus and this was one of the stands that really caught my attention because I really think that those two big plates, golden plates that we find here are absolutely beautiful pieces. Also this console, this table where those plates are it's absolutely beautiful and with wonderful lines too. Clocks are always beautiful pieces. I love to film them and this one is very special because it was made by a very important clock creator but also because this clock this has a music box so the bass that we see here it's a music box so this clock normally would play music according with the hours so quite interesting. This is a beautiful atmosphere also that we breathe in this stand. There are beautiful pieces. This other counter is also very very special because it's in a beautiful wood but all the incrustations that we see here are made in ivory so it's very very amazing the beautiful work that we see and it's not only ivory but also the covers of the doors and of the drawers are in turtle shell so this is wood covered with ivory encrusted in turtle shell so it's a completely precious thing and it makes a beautiful beautiful effect and it's definitely one majestic piece. Beautiful pieces, beautiful table also with a beautiful mark tree and the galleries that do have paintings they bring the best paintings they have and in this one I was quite fascinated by that painting there that has a lady with a beautiful fabric we can see here look to the how the painter could express like silk so well done so well painted it's so beautiful with that blue and that color so vivid also this one is an incredible incredible detailed painting beautifully created and we can see that the artist really was very very talented. What amazes me most in the fine art fairs and in a lot of stands is the way they depict the walls like the ancient museums would have holes full of paintings and this stand was quite an interesting example of that. This is a magnificent 18th century Neapolitan nativity scene one of the finest artistic traditions to emerge from Naples during the Baroque period. Neapolitan nativity scenes are far more than simple Christmas decorations. During the 18th century they become elaborated theatrical compositions combining sculpture, architecture and scenes of everyday life. Alongside the holy family they include martians, musicians, nobles and countless ordinary people creating a vivid snapshot of life in Baroque Naples so this was a quite interesting find in this visit because I wasn't expecting something like this but it's definitely a beautiful beautiful example of the 18th century Neapolitan Preserve that we have here. A lot of animals and the beautiful sculpture is absolutely amazing the detail that we can find. A lot of careful and creativity was put in each of the figures so those are figures that show the daily life and everybody was very amazed with the beauty of the of the whole scenario and the holy family is right there on the top so it's quite interesting. You know that I have a special I love to the contrast that we find in fine art fairs and more contemporanean and more modern painting is also something that attracts me very much also because I'm a painter and I do paint in a more expressionist so it's quite a contrast because I do restore old paintings figurative paintings and very traditional antique but also then I paint in a very modern and expressionist way and so I was quite impressed by this painting because I think it's absolutely amazing the the impasto that the artist made on this painting the way the colors are mixed and the quality of the the texture so rich it's really really beautiful beautiful painting very different from the other side of the baroque but as some already of you know I do have this taste of I love traditional and very antique and very baroque things but then also I have a special love also for more modern art so here you know when I was looking to this painting which is also with a very specific texture made reminded me of the Rosetta stone you know because it looks like the lines with the different languages that we see on that stone so every draw here every detail on the texture looks like the almost like the Rosetta stone and you know I'm so happy that I could find these beautiful pieces from Relena Lalique to show you because it's so gracious the way he made this brush with the image of the lady with wings like a butterfly it's really really beautiful this was a stand with beautiful jewels and it was quite special to find this stand here in this where you can find very old gold with from the best creators and so many others so every piece here of jewelry it's quite fascinating and has a very beautiful details I was totally amazed by this painting because it's so very beautiful the way it's painted look to the details on the pearls on on the hands on the rings on on the jewels the dress is so incredibly detailed painted it's absolutely amazing really really spectacular painting the expression on the models is absolutely stunning and the frame this gold gilded frame is absolutely beautiful but I was really really impressed and I cannot imagine how many hours were needed to to paint something like this I really would love to to know your opinion about any of the the objects that I put on this video I really would like to know which one did you like the most because I'm quite near to show you the object that I found more special to put in this video and this is the piece that it really impressed me very much so I choose it as to be my choice as a special object in this video this extraordinary object is known as a silver gilt mounted Nautilus cup during the Dutch golden age exotic Nautilus shells were brought to Europe from Southeast Asia where master goldsmiths transformed them into luxurious works of art these objects were far more than drinking vessels they were symbols of wealth global trade and artistic virtuosity interestingly this very cup also appears in a contemporary Dutch still life painting showing that it was already considered an exceptional object nearly 400 years ago this is a beautiful detail because it shows that we are not only looking to a gold piece we are looking to an object that was extremely extraordinary to be eternized in a painting of the Dutch golden age from the 18th century and this is what I have to show you in this video for this week I hope you had a good time watching all these beautiful pieces and I want to wish you a wonderful week take care I hope I can see you on the next video and until then take care see you soon bye bye thank you