This evening, thanks to a gallery-owning friend, we went to a pre-opening viewing of ‘BRAFA’, the Brussels Antiques and Fine Arts Fair, at Tour & Taxis (the former customs warehouse site in Brussels). Altogether, about 130 galleries had gathered to display their objets, whilst waiters served sparkling wine and aperitifs to a vast crowd of collectors and amateurs. Oh my! So many beautiful things, including some well-known works from well-known artists. There were also a lot of relatively minor or less well-known works. One I particularly liked and thought might, just, be in my price range was an exquisite Léon Spilliaert water colour, beautifully framed, of a sunny landscape (not a characteristic subject matter for the manic depressive that Spilliaerts was to become). I sidled up to the gallery owner and asked what sort of price we were talking about. ‘One hundred thousand euros,’ he replied. Ah, well; one can dream, can’t one? I couldn’t find a copy of the image on the internet, by the way, so I have put a copy of one of Spilliaert’s most well-known works.
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