Who Brought TEFAF’s 2025 Trophy?

Front and center at TEFAF is the Landau Fine Art Gallery. Their relatively large stand at 414 is earned by frequenting Europe's finest art fair for close to four decades. The actual gallery set design is not the fanciest or the flashiest. They have creamy white walls and a carpeted floor that falls away behind the art. Their curation on display speaks loud enough. Rumoured to be worth over $50 million, Picasso’s Les Dormeurs is the highest-valued piece of art present at TEFAF 2025. Visitors, whether serious clients or not, find it irresistible to pop into the gallery booth to get a look at the work that they’ve hung on the back wall of their gallery. 

Les Dormeurs has hung on many museum walls over the years; it has seen the interior of the Louvre, the Stedelijk Museum, the Guggenheim, the Centre Pompidou and the Museu Picasso. What makes Les Dormeurs so special? 

The vibrant green background behind pink shards of a face. Rumoured to be painted just so because of Picasso’ severe migraines, his pain meant his vision was cut up and this led to him seeing contortions in flashes of reality. Picasso, infamous for his many muses, paints Jacqueline Roque, with whom he spent his last 20 years in matrimony. Their age difference of 36 years kept him young, or so he said. Picasso had a dream about Jacqueline and this is what the painting is of. Hence the title. 

This piece hung on the back wall of Picasso’s art dealer and primary agent, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s office as he believed it to be one of Picasso’s masterpieces. This is high praise in and of itself. Until he sold it directly to Robert Landau, the founder of Landau Fine Art, it had been in the Landau family’s possession for three generations. The 17th-century Spanish style frame around Les Dormeurs was purchased recently and cost as much as a small house. 

Whilst  TEFAF is open to the public, it is predominantly an art sale. Many of the other stands I spoke to were there with the sole intention of selling. Yes, the general public coming to take a look at Europe’s finest art was good for fostering interest and establishing an accessible connection with those unable to buy anything so that TEFAF may continue to exist in this rocky political climate where class difference is getting more and more pronounced, but this is extra. Gallery owners come to sell. Therefore it is significant to note that Picasso’s Les Dormeurs is not for sale at TEFAF. 

Landau Fine Art is from Montreal, Canada but has two locations; in Switzerland and Canada. They have brought this Picasso (they have brought another, not valued as highly but still gorgeous) from their gallery in Basel to show off at TEFAF. To lure fine art clients to Maastricht, a place relatively difficult to get to. The rumoured valuation of over $50 million stems from an offer of this sum which was turned down. 

Of course, Les Dormeurs is the crown piece of the Landau curation this year but the third-generation Landau gallery owner is equally passionate about every piece he shows us. Whilst being led around the few walls of their booth he shows us Kees van Dongen’s, Anita-La Belle Fatima et Sa Troupe. Deep dark colours with girls dancing and twirling on canvas. Van Dongen has concealed Anita’s eyes in the piece, with her head thrown back and her arms raised above her head. It draws the viewer to the red open slash of her mouth. Anita’s dance as Fatima feels intoxicating and is a desired art piece.

Benjamin Evans, Robert Landau’s grandson and my enthusiastic guide, moves excitedly to a section of the gallery dedicated to Alberto Giacometti. The Swiss artist was primarily known for his sculptures but two of his paintings hang here too. In particular, Giacometti’s portrait of Aika is introduced to us with a lot of enthusiasm. Another piece of art brought from Switzerland that is not for sale at TEFAF 2025. A painting purchased for the Landau Fine Art collection by Evans, which he explained to be a nerve-wracking event but one he believed wholeheartedly in. Giacometti’s emphasis on Aika’s face, forcing the viewer to look at her head which exists out of brush strokes layered on brush strokes. Giacometti’s existentialism as he painted Aika is visible in the tension of the colours and the play of light on the canvas. Giacometti’s Aika demands the viewer’s eye and does not relinquish it easily.

Evans explains that the art at Landau Fine Art is for sale only to those who can properly appreciate the value of the art. I am explained that the value of art comes from the quality of its creation–not from its scarcity. This is what makes Les Dormeurs so special. Picasso’s love and captivation for Jacqueline Roque are palpable through the 1956 canvas. Only those who properly treasure and respect the art in the same way the Landau family does can be considered serious customers. Les Dormeurs has been bid on before, in the past with smaller sums, all of which have been declined. Art can be sold to make money, but those who understand the real value of the art can know that holding onto it could produce a fortune. Something that the Landau family has understood and actively employs in their business dealings. The art market is volatile but this fact can be overcome by procuring, cherishing and maintaining the correct investments so that generations may collaborate over time to build a fortune.