ABOUT ART GALLERY MAASTRICHT

About thirty years ago we, Willie and Raf, started collecting antique porcelain and pottery. That’s also when the idea of starting a store in antique ceramics was born. While collecting ceramics and gradually other antique objects, we became increasingly interested in art. Initially this was mostly figurative art from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We both took a four-year course to become antique dealers at the beginning of the 21st century. As a dealer, you obviously need a lot of knowledge, and we immersed ourselves more and more, through study and visiting museums, in applied design and art movements.

In 2000, the supermarket around the corner where we lived became vacant. We bought the building and opened our first store in it; De Plataan in Heerlen. In 2010 we moved with our store to Schimmert, the store got a new name; De Kling. In 2023 we decided to say goodbye to our brick-and-mortar store. In the more than twenty-five years that we traded in art and antiques, we saw the strong rise of the Internet and the changing trade with it. In recent years, customers came to our store only after orienting themselves on our website. Our own tastes and interests also changed over the years. The interest in the history of the development of applied design and the history of art has remained undiminished, but in recent years our attention has increasingly been drawn to twentieth-century art and design.

The changing trade plus our interest in twentieth-century modern art made us decide to change course completely in 2024. We sold De Kling’s collection and started Art Gallery Maastricht. Our gallery focuses mainly (but not exclusively) on the following three post-war movements: geometric-abstract art, Art Informel and figurative art affiliated with Cobra.

An owner of art may decide to sell a work privately rather than auction it. Auctions can be time-consuming, annoying if an owner wants a quick transaction; in addition, private sales offer a greater degree of control. An auction is held at a certain time or period and will not always be able to reach all potential buyers during that period. Furthermore, the business model of auction houses focuses on selling large volumes. This means that auction houses often lack the depth and attention to specialized markets, also a work may be auctioned while there is a weak market for the artist in question at that time, which then incidentally affects the values of other works by that artist. However, the purchase of art by our gallery also shows commitment; of course we want to resell works at a profit, but the fact that we become the new owner also means that we are willing to take risks and that we have great interest and knowledge in art.

We don’t think you can appraise and buy at the same time, which means we have decided not to appraise for others. Nor do we take art on consignment. When purchasing, we base our price on recent auction prices (if available), the quality of the artwork and an estimate of the size and location of the market for the piece purchased. We will clearly explain at the time of purchase what the price we offer is based on. If you would like to sell art to us, please call to make an appointment. You can also send an email; the more information you include; photos and descriptions, the better we can judge whether we want to purchase the piece.