Over 10,000 VIPs descended on the small Dutch town of Maastricht last Wednesday for the opening of The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) fair, the largest and most diverse assembly of high quality art and antiques offered under one roof anywhere in the world. The fair, which closes on Sunday, encompasses everything from early Bronze Age sculptures to contemporary jewellery.

This year, prices range from the low thousands of Euros up to €18 million (£14 million) for a late painting by the American abstract artist Cy Twombly. That price alone speaks volumes about today’s dominance of contemporary art values over the wealth of ancient rarities at the fair that were made to look like bargains in comparison. Turning left into the first entrance to the fair, Sydney L Moss, scholarly dealers in Asian art, could be found with a glass cabinet full of the finest netsuke. Four of these tiny creatures had already sold for up to £30,000 each and a rare pair of carved wooden Buddhist temple guards, which Moss discovered were signed under their skirts by the multi-talented and sought after Edo period artist Ritsuo, were priced at £185,000 and attracting attention.

Elsewhere, European works of art consultant William Iselin was admiring an extremely rare, 15-inch wide group of wax figures, depicting the Flight into Egypt, covered in baroque pearls, emeralds and amethysts by the 17th century goldsmith, Francois Roberday, on the stand of Paris dealer Alex Kugel. “Fewer than 20 examples of Roberday’s work are known and most are in museums in Paris, Italy and Germany,” said Kugel, explaining why it was priced in seven figures, “and this one has never been exhibited before”. “The audience at TEFAF is so knowledgeable and well-heeled that dealers hold special things back to show them here first,” said Islein, who was stalking the territory for his clients.

Next to Kugel is the fair’s former chairman, Ben Janssens, a popular dealer in ancient Chinese works of art. He sold over 50 pieces in the first four days including a Tang Dynasty pottery horse for around €100,000, and six pottery warriors of the Han dynasty for €40,000 to American, Chinese and European clients.

Just over the aisle in the Old Master paintings section, Colnaghi got off to a spirited start with seven sales for approximately €12 million on the first day. These included a 17th-century floral still life by Roelant Savery, described by Sotheby’s George Gordon as “in a class of its own”, which sold to the Mauritshuis museum for €6.5 million; and a large biblical scene of Christ recruiting the fishermen, Saints Peter and Andrew, by the 17th-century baroque artist Luca Giordano, priced at €2 million.

The Mauritshuis had agreed to buy its painting before the fair, but the announcement on the first day was certainly good publicity for the museum and the gallery. Also good publicity was the display by Paris dealers Talabardon & Gautier of an early painting by Rembrandt, discovered unattributed and with a $200 estimate at an auction in New Jersey. They ended up paying $1 million for it, and sold it before the fair to the Leiden collection in New York reportedly for over $3 million. Even though it is not for sale, there is a constant queue lining up to see it.

Other discoveries included an 18th-century marble bust of Roma by Vincenzo Pacetti, spotted in a provincial UK saleroom last year where it was catalogued as by an unknown 19th-century artist and sold for around £42,000. Once established as a work by Pacetti that had belonged to the celebrated British collector Thomas Hope, it became worth considerably more. Old Master dealer Fergus Hall boasted a huge painting of Hercules by the Spanish artist Jusepe de Ribera, which he had bought for £350,000 at Sotheby’s where it was catalogued it as by “Ribera and workshop” – “slashing its value,” says Hall “by 90 percent”. Hall was able to fully attribute it and sell it for £3.4 million.

Modern art at TEFAF was comparatively predictable; the post-war European Zero group artists have been in vogue for a few years now, and several nail reliefs by Günther Uecker were on view, one selling for close to €2 million. Antiques dealers are increasingly mixing modern and contemporary art with their stock, and for rare book dealer Bernard Shapero it paid off when he sold a screen print of Ingrid Bergman by Andy Warhol for €85,000. But for something different and exciting, go to the works on paper section where dealer James Butterwick has a solo exhibition of drawings by the Ukranian avant garde artist Alexander Bogomazov, priced from €15,000 to €1.5 million each. On the opening day, five sold, including two to the Kröller-Müller Museum.