Works by Van Gogh and Picasso sold for record prices at Dutch art fair

Europe's biggest art fair has closed its doors, and organisers said sales, including rare works by Van Gogh, Picasso and Kees van Dongen, had reached "record prices".
Although the total sales of some of the world's most sought-after artworks could not be given, organisers of the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) said sales had reached "tens of millions of euros".
"It is impossible to calculate the total as many of the amounts are not made public," said TEFAF organiser Noepi Testa.
"But we had record sales that reached tens of millions of euros," she told AFP.
Among the most expensive items for sale this year were a rare early Van Gogh painting, painted when the artist lived in the southern Netherlands around 1884, and a work by abstract art pioneer Wassily Kandinsky worth several million euros.
The U.S.-based gallery that sold the Van Gogh painting, titled "Tete de paysanne a la coiffe blanche," confirmed the buyer, and Dutch media reported that the asking price of 4.5 million euros ($4.9 million) had been reached.
Kandinsky's 1910 painting "Murnau mit Kirche II" was put up for sale by art dealer Robert Landau, who bought the work last year for $45 million at a Sotheby's auction.
It is not known if a new buyer has been found, but Landau indicated at the fair that the painting was recently valued at "100 million euros."
Other big names also reached top prices.
A work on paper by Pablo Picasso called "Femme au tablier" sold for almost two million euros, while a painting by Dutch-French artist Kees van Dongen titled "Femme au Chapeau" sold for "a seven-figure sum to a private European collector."
But it was not only paintings that fetched top prices.
A 17th-century mirror by Safavid was sold to the Aga Khan Foundation in Toronto for about 200,000 euros, organizers said.
A porcelain piece from Delft, which was previously owned by British fashion photographer Cecil Beaton, reached a price of about 300,000 euros.
During the eight-day fair, nearly 50,000 visitors flocked to view the artworks presented by 270 exhibitors from 22 countries. / BGNES