From January 26 until Sunday, February 2, 2025, Brafa returns, the fair desired by the antiquarians of Brussels that celebrates 70 years. It is in the spaces of Brussels Expo, very close to the Atomium.
The event brings to Brussels 132 galleries and industry professionals from all over the world (10 from Italy). According to President Klaas Muller, eclecticism is its distinguishing feature. We see, after all, a selection of works and artifacts ranging from Prehistory to contemporary. This year the guest of honor is the Portuguese Joana Vasconcelos, famous for her giant, playful, and colorful sculptures. She has created two monumental “Valchirie” that welcome guests at the entrance.
What can we find at the seventieth edition of Brafa
Brafa boasts archaeological finds from Prehistory, such as the zampa di mammut, over two meters high, or the fossile di ittiosauro -1.8 million years ago, on sale for 1.2 million -, presented by Stone Gallery. Yet, it does not disdain arte contemporanea.
The galleries from the Bel Paese are 10. Valerio Turchi exhibits heads – like that of Venus offered at 60,000 euros -, and torsos of Greco-Roman relevance. The stand of Dalton Somaré has been decorated with the drawings of the facades della Cà Brüta. This is a Milanese building recognized as the Manifesto of the Novecento movement, designed by Giovanni Muzio, great-grandfather of the two gallerists. Completing the work is a pair of bamana antelope headdresses from Mali. But which are the galleries exhibiting at Brafa 2025 and what artistic sector do they deal with?
The galleries of Brafa 2025, Asian art and modern art
Many participating galleries exhibit artifacts from the Asian continent. To name one, the French Galerie Hioco focuses on a work from Northern India: Laksminarayana, a black stone sculpture dating back to the 10th-11th century. Then there are expert exhibitors of Ancient and modern art. A small treasure is the drawing by the Flemish Jacob Jordaens, Tribune de musiciens dans une loggia, circa 1635, from COLNAGHI (London).
Art Nouveau and Art Déco
Thomas Deprez Fine Arts, specialized in Belgian art of the Fin-de-Siècle, showcases a historical piece of museum quality by Pieter Jan Braecke (1858-1938). L’Humanité, in marble, is over 2 meters high. From 1906, it was displayed in the atrium of the Hôtel Aubecq, a masterpiece by Victor Horta (Gand 1861-1947 Brussels), destroyed in 1949.
Paintings and sculptures of the Nineteenth Century
The French Berès exhibits Les fées (ca. 1891) by Maurice Denis, a famous artist of the Nabis group.
Artimo Fine Arts focuses, among others, on the work of the English artist Joseph Gott (Calverley 1785-1860 Rome), Ulisse e il suo cane, in white Carrara marble. The sculpture depicts Odysseus, in a loincloth and headdress, being recognized by his faithful dog Argo, after 20 years of absence from Ithaca.
Watchmaking, Jewelry, and Antique Furniture
At the stand of the Belgian Artimo Fine Arts, a book automaton is presented. Made by MEUSSEL & FILS in Geneva in March 1823, it is in gold, enamel, and tortoise. It is characterized by a question-and-answer mechanism and is one of the six existing specimens. It contains, in fact, an animated scene. On the side of the book, there are two gold sliders: a lower one with six questions; an upper one where the chosen question is inserted. Closing the upper slider activates a mechanism that opens an oval panel on the cover. Thus, a magician is revealed, silhouetted against the backdrop of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc. He performs a series of movements to finally indicate the correct answer to the selected question. This automaton is considered the most complex among those with a magical theme, representing a unique piece in the history of automatons.
Barbara Bassi presents a sumptuous bracelet in 18-carat gold and diamonds by Franco Canilla (Caltagirone 1911-1985 Rome), circa 1950.
The French Marc Maison draws attention with a project dedicated to Egittomania. The monumental bed designed by the 19th-century cabinetmaker Louis Malard was highly photographed. It was presented at the 1889 Universal Exhibition.
Contemporary Art and Design at Brafa 2025
RobertaeBasta is specialized in Italian design. At this edition of BRAFA, however, it brings an exceptional table by Jean Prouvè designed in the 1920s and made in 1990.
Objects with Narrative sets up the stand titling it “L’Élan Belge”, dedicated to contemporary design talents like Ben Storms (Ghent, 1983).
Nathalie Obadia (FR/BE) debuts at BRAFA with a tapestry by Laure Provost (Croix, 1978), We Will Keep Cool (Tour Eben Ezer), from 2023.
How were the sales at Brafa 2025?
But how did the sales go? Galerie Raf Van Severen sold an oil on canvas by Gustave Van de Woestijne (1881-1947). It represents Adrienne De Zutter with the violin for a price ranging between 300,000 and 400,000 euros.
The Gallery Oscar De Vos sold an 1896 painting by Emile Claus (a Belgian exponent of impressionist luminism), La faneuse, for almost a million.
Artimo Fine Arts, which has gained attention for the particular magic book, has acquired a sculpture by Toon Dupuis – a sculptor and medalist of Belgian origin, active in the Netherlands at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries – for about 150,000 euros. It is a seated nude, in marble, from 1910.
Florian Kolhammer sold a work valued at 50,000 euros; the Italian Mearini Fine Art a pair of consoles; Galerie Nicolas Bourriaud some animalier sculptures by Ferdinand Parpan representing a hippopotamus and a cat. Jean Francois Cazeau sold 4 works (1945) by André Masson between 30,000 and 70,000 euros.
Drawings, Tapestries, artist’s proofs
Colnaghi has received many requests. It has already sold some of the works in the stand, such as the drawing by Josef Hoffmann (famous designer and architect of the Viennese Secession) or the “Profiled study of a man’s head,” in black and red chalk, executed by Cornelis De Vos, a Flemish painter of the seventeenth century. The gallery De Wit, specialized in tapestry, has sold two enormous tapestries: a “Zoological park with pergola” of Dutch origin (1550-1600) and a “Playground with rhinoceroses” from the workshop of Philippe van der Cammen (1560-70).
At Harold T Kint a myriad of red dots can be seen from Paul Bury (contemporary Belgian sculptor and painter) to René Magritte and Henry Van de Velde – Belgian architect, painter, and designer of the Art Nouveau. To date, he has sold 25 pieces, including the most important piece by Paul Bury, “25 eggs on a tray” (1969) in brass, magnet, and electric motor, for 70,000 euros, artist’s proof number 2, coming directly from his personal collection and belonging to his wife Velma Bury.
Sales of African art and the model of the Altar of Pergamon
Montagut Gallery has attracted attention for the golden masks of the Baule people of Côte d’Ivoire. They were part of the collection of Giovanni Franco Scanzi and have all been sold, 10 to a couple of collectors. Claes, specializing in artifacts from the African continent, has sold almost everything because in Belgium – a nation with a heavy colonial past – there is a cultured and knowledgeable collecting community on African art. One of the works for sale, for 200,000 euros, is the Songye mask from Congo. Rightly, the journalist Nicola Zanella raises a question. Does the sale of ethnic and tribal artifacts, the result of colonial plunder, make sense? For years now, the restitution of these to the countries of origin by many museums has been discussed.
Galerie Desmet sold a plastico for the value of 65,000 euros, previously purchased at an auction of the Metropolitan. The plastico reproduces a relief part of the decorative apparatus of the altar of Pergamon (preserved in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin). In 2016, in fact, the Metropolitan in New York organized the exhibition “Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World”. The exhibition included 264 works of art from the Hellenistic kingdoms.
https://www.brafa.art/en/exhibitors
She has collaborated for many years with art magazines such as Artribune, XIBT Contemporary, ArtApp, Insideart and Espoarte, preferring contemporary art in its many facets and media drifts.
