The Art Market Miracle [Edition 2]

Beginning of article

As London's art dealers descend on the world's biggest selling fair, Godfrey Barker reveals how their trade is bucking the trend as investors choose to put their money in masterpieces not the banks

AT THE European Art Fair in Maastricht business is good. On the opening day Simon Dickinson of Jermyn Street sold Degas's 1886 pastel of a girl braiding her hair, Toilette Matinale, for Pounds 8.5 million while Colnaghi's of Bond Street took Pounds 4.5 million for an early Rubens Portrait of A Gentleman.

Ben Janssens, the St James's dealer in Chinese Art was overrun by a rush hour in which 30 pieces sold, headed by an 18th century lacquered panel for Pounds 100,000, …