TEFAF 2026, an excellent edition

Each edition of TEFAF is remarkable, but some years seem even better than others, and this is the case for 2026 (until March 19). We saw a large number of major works, and it is often difficult to make a choice, especially as we prefer not to show more than one work per stand, while some are filled with magnificent objects, and we also want to highlight objects that, even if not among the most important, have real heritage interest. As always, therefore, our selection will be partial and biased, as it is impossible to do otherwise within a framework that can only be limited.

We will organize our article by themes, starting with the few works that seem absolutely heritage-worthy for France, whose permanent departure abroad would be a real problem. First, the four terms from Oiron at Stuart Lochhead (ill. 1 and 2). If we had to choose a single highlight piece for this edition of TEFAF, it would in our eyes be these four terracotta terms — part of a series of ten — that decorated the niches of the buttresses on the first floor of the north wing of Château d’Oiron, built between 1544 and 1546 at the instigation of Claude Gouffier. Offered by Stuart Lochhead, we believe they belong in the Louvre, which has preserved since December 1935 a fifth term from the same origin. While we would already like to know more about the conditions of their departure from Oiron, we do know that they left at the end of the 19th century, when Wildenstein sold them to John Pierpont Morgan, who exhibited them at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Sold in 1944, they have since belonged to the famous dynasty of art dealers.

Another set, from Sèvres this time, at Camille Leprince, should also, in our view, be destined for the Louvre. It is a cabaret (ill. 3) entirely dedicated to painting lovers since it was delivered to the future Charles X at the end of 1815, constituting a kind of tribute to the greatest masters: each of the five shaped pieces is decorated with the bust of a painter, while the five flat pieces are decorated with a copy of one of their paintings. Regular Louvre visitors will enjoy recognizing Saint Cecilia by Pierre Mignard, Christ with the Woman Taken in Adultery by Nicolas Poussin, Christ and the Children by Sébastien Bourdon, Annunciation after Eustache Le Sueur, and