It’s bitterly cold outside, the wind cuts straight through you, but the Brussels Art Fair (BRAFA, 26 January – 03 February) at the Tour & Taxis offers sweet reprise. Now in its 64th edition, 133 dealers and galleries presented thousands of works offering, as described in the press release, “something for every taste and every need, for every purse, for the most rigorous collector or the simple beginner“, from contemporary art through to 20th-century furniture.

Among the 133 were thirteen dealers of ‘Primitive and Pre-Columbian Art’ (it’s 2019, we must stop using ‘primitive’ as a label for art… please), down from the fifteen, we counted in 2018. At this year’s edition, newcomers Martin Doustar (Brussels) and Charles-Wesley Hourdé (Paris) joined Didier Claes (Brussels), Pierre Dartevelle (Brussels), Deletaille Gallery (Brussels), Porfirius Kunstkammer (Brussels), Yann Ferrandin (Paris), Finch & Co (London), Bernard de Grunne Tribal Fine Arts (Brussels), Guilhem Montagut Gallery (Barcelona), Serge Schoffel – Art Premier (Brussels), Galerie Schoffel de Fabry (Paris), and Grusenmeyer – Woliner (Brussels). Galerie Ratton (Paris), Galerie Monbrison (Paris), and Galerie Jacques Germain (Montreal) were not at the fair this year.

On everyone’s lips was talk of restitution and the impact the debate would have on the private art market. Some remarked on the negative impact it is already having on the market with buyers moving to other fields of collecting while others see the slight depression in the African art market due to “current geopolitical [and financial] turmoil.”

But we visited the fair to see the art, to discover new works, and to revel in the fact that historical African art continues to strengthen its presence at the fair. So what were the highlights from this year’s instalment?