One of the things I love most about living in Berlin is Saturday mornings in the city. While on rainy days my husband, The Wine Guy, and I love nothing more than to sleep in, snuggling with the cat, but when the sun shines we get dressed and wander out in the city to explore our surroundings. We live in Mitte – which literally means the “center” of the city – and within minutes of stumbling out of our front door we’re at the Unter den Linden, basking in the shadow of Brandenburg Gate or lingering on the lawns at the Reichstag. If we’re in the mood for brunch we might head over to the Oranienburger Strasse and if we’re in the mood for a stroll along the river we hold hands and weave in and out of the joggers fencing the Spree. Inevitably, these strolls detour to the Berliner Kunst Markt (Berlin Art Market) at Museum Island.
The contents of the art market tend more towards tourist art than serious collector pieces, but the paintings are quirky and colorful and fun – the type of painting you might hang in your bathroom, a child’s bedroom, guest room or hall so that each time you pass by you just have to smile and remember your trip to Berlin. Paintings are sold alongside polish pottery, art glass and cute tiles commemorating local landmarks.
My friend, The English Rose, visiting me in Berlin and picking up a souvenir on her trip! 
A closer look at those tiles… The English Rose bought the tile of Brandenberg Gate. You can visit the Berlin Art Market every Saturday and Sunday from 11am – 5pm… and if it’s a sunny day you never know… you might bump into The Wine Guy & me making our Saturday morning rounds in Berlin!
Kunst und Nostalgie Markt
Am Zeughaus
Berlin – Mitte
Have a Happy Saturday!The Antiques Diva™
(Seen right with The English Rose opposite the art market and across the river in front of The Berliner Dom)
The European Fine Arts Fair in Maastricht 12-21 March 2010. 
I would add to Dana’s words that vendors and buyers alike come from the four corners of the world – 82% of the participants are non-Dutch with 220 art and antiques representative checking-in from 15 different countries. Museum curators and trustees from 25 countries visited TEFAF in 2008 including the major American institutions, the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the Shanghai Art Museum, the Tate Britain in London and both the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. 
Competition for a stall at the fair is fiercer than Olympic figure skating (and behind-the-scenes stories make Tonya Harding seem tame). For an antiques dealer, making the fair means they’ve made it! Only the best of the best are allowed to participate in the event. But this year TEFAF is doing something new. They recognize that it is difficult for new dealers to “make it’ into the show when competing against buisnesses which have been around longer than many nations. Thus, TEFAF has recently added The TEFAF Showcase for recently established vendors. These debutantes are allowed to participate in the Showcase strictly on a one-off basis, thereby giving young dealers the exposure of being part of a major international fine art event. TEFAF stall rentals typically run for rates equal to buying an ownership share in an NFL football team, but these debutantes are allowed to participate for peanuts. Their TEFAF costs aren’t as high as the big boys fees, thus their “needed profit margins” aren’t going to be as high. In my opinion, these are the dealers to watch. If you like their inventory, get their names and contact information and 6 months after the fair (once the post-TEFAF- euphoria wears off and their prices have floated back down to reality) give them a call about the item you’re interested in!
As you walk about the carefully decorated stalls look around - not just at the items for sell, the great floral arrangments and the innovative décor, but at the other visitors to the fair. See that guy over there – he’s a private buyer who just flew in on his private jet. Of course, unless you are a polyglot, you might find eavesdropping on the rich and famous to be a bit difficult. You’re as likely to hear English spoken as you are Russian, Chinese, Aarbic, French, Portugese, German, Dutch or Italian. It’s as if you’ve taken the worlds wealthiest citizens, thrown them in a Baccarat martini shaker and added copious quantities of cologne, silk ascots, and mink. The cocktail comes out tasting a tad Fitzgeraldesque, but with price tags included.
It’s this latter reason that I send you to the show. When you go to a museum you can’t touch the art, you don’t get to see the reverse of the painting and you certainly don’t hear how much money a Monet costs. But at TEFAF, you can do all these things. Entrance for 2 into TEFAF costs more than I spent on the pair of brass turn-of-the-century-Polish candlesticks I bought at a flea market in Gdansk which grace my table, but the cost is worth it. At 55E per person (it does include the stupendous fair catalog – eye candy itself) you might be wondering why I’m sending you there. Unless your budget is a whole lot bigger than mine you most likely won’t be doing any buying at the fair. Consider it a day out window shopping. But, oh honey, the window shopping is good. Down right Divalicious.
I always tell Diva Clients who are interested in learning about antiques to go to the museums. Study the art, study quality and then take that knowledge home with you and out to the flea market and apply it at prices that don’t rival the USA’s national deficit. This is why you go to TEFAF. You go to TEFAF to educate your eye so that you recognize quality (and while you’re there to try and hone in on a few free glasses of champagne). The worlds best antiques have been gathered in this one location (I cringe to think what insurance for the fair must cost). No where else (includng the world’s best museums – the Louvre, the Rijksmuseum, the Uffizi or the Met) will you find a collection of art and antiques this good in one locale... that is, until next year. For the fair has been held every March since 1975, recession or no recession. 
Ben Janssens, Chairman of TEFAF’s Executive Committee, said: “There is no evidence that the jittery financial markets have discouraged art buyers and in fact the reverse seems to be true. Visitors said to me that they see no point in investing in stocks at the moment and prefer to put their money into art and antiques. What has also been encouraging is the increase in visitors from Asia including, for the first time, two groups totaling 20 people from mainland China.” 
Dates for March 2011 are not yet available but typically TEFAF posts the next year’s dates within weeks following it’s current fair. This information, my friends, is key for you. It might be too late for you to catch a train or book a flight to this years TEFAF, but you will certainly want to add TEFAF to your 2010 calendar and while you’re at it go ahead and book the hotel. Hotels for 30 miles around book up a year in advance.
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A while back I shared with the Antiques Diva the gorgeous vintage platinum necklace sprinkled with diamonds (only $100!) that I scored at the 
After leaving Paris we moved on to Copenhagen. When we moved on once again, this time returning to the USA, left in my coat pockets were handfuls of Danish kroner, useful for buying a paper or coffee when I was out walking my dog Mignette. Several of the kroner have holes in the center (they come that way: I didn’t have to drill). Brilliant! 3 kroner now dangle from my gold neck chain reminding me of the years I lived in Denmark as an expat.
What about the silver quatrefoil key to the door of my beautiful apartment in Paris? The giant Baccarat crystal I found at a Paris brocante? The ivory Chinese good luck charm I bought at an antique shop in Singapore? A seashell picked up on the beach in 
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Make your journey easier by travelling on 
