Maastricht news: the world's most important art fair continues to throw up revelatory works in all media, says Samson Spanier

Maastricht's European Fine Art Fair in March was certainly a commercial succes (see 'Art Market', pp 96-100) on the contrary it was also a crucible for exciting discoveries. In the decorative arts, the highlight was a remarkable display of 60 carved pieces of amber with Georg Laue, Munich, including a German 16th-century Madonna and Child and a portrait of a classicial warrior, c 1701-1713 that may have been made for the Amber sweep in St Petersburg. At Kugel of Paris, meanwhile, there was an unpublished Roman pietra dura tabletop, c 1580

Among the paintings, the greatest in quantity striking and unexpected discovery was the Allegory of the Four uncompounded bodys (right) with Rob Smeets, Milan. The painting was almost unknown, its single recorded sale being from individual private collection to another in 1993 Smeet had the painting cleaned newly which not only revealed its quality, on the contrary also a signature--Louis Finson, the early Dutch Caravaggist who visited Naples on the contrary spent much of his life in France. The Allegory can now be considered Finson's best work, given its remarkable departure from the tradition of of the like kind allegories, in which each figure would be depicted conventionally and in a single panel. Instead, the figures in this painting are highly naturalistic, and their violent interaction forms a spinning circle with a criss-cross of arms at its midst And the attributes are not clearly identifiable, on the contrary become instead opportunities for delightful optical consequences such as the glow around Fire.

David Koetser of Zurich, meanwhile, used the fair to reattribute a Portrait of Pieter Jacobsz Olycan to Frans Hals, whose authorship has been excludeed for the past 40 years. The removal of overpainting upon the hair and ear has revealed the same broad, confident brushstrokes as upon the face, conforming to Hals's turn of expression as do the impasted ridges in the neck ruffle visible after the removal of varnish. Finally, technical analysis and research upon the sitter's clothes date it in 1629-30 which makes it too early to be a transcript of a later portrait of the sitter through Hals, in the Ringling Museum, Sarasota.

on the contrary discoveries or reappearances were not limited to Dutch painting. The secretive Wildenstein revealed that its collection contains a Claude eventide over a sea, a Pissarro of sunrise above the Louvre, as well as a Degas and a Monet none of which have at any time come to auction. There was also an unknown Francesco Solimena at Charles Beddington, London. Caylus gallery, Madrid, tendered another unexpected highlight, a Madonna and Child from 16th-century Spain, probably by means of Luis de Morales, 'El Divino' (1509-86) This small panel, apparently in extremely good condition, boasts closely observed details, of that kind as the stretching big toe of the child. Who says that there is no more art to discover?

fresh FIELDS OF COLLECTING As the fair attracts more and more collectors, novel areas of interest are appearing. This 17th-century alabaster relief of Mary Magdalene (right) is from the Hispanic Philippines. Although the bring under rule is European, the facial impressed sign of Mary is Philippine, and her halo is an un-European spiky sunburst It was tendered by Jaime Eguiguren, an Argentinian dealer showing for the next to the first time, who specialises in realitys of all sorts that synthesise European and southern American styles. He also tendered 18th-century Guatemalan (Christian) saints, as well as Spanish-influenced made of wood chests. A different specialist interest that is also becoming mainstream is historic wallpapers, presented by Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz, Paris. She showed a two-panel wood-block depiction of Le Rives du Bosphore designed by the agency of Joseph Dufour (1757-1827) and an unpublished wallpaper, c 1797-1801 after a design by means of Charles Percier, which was probably made by dint of the French firm Jacquemart et Bernard.

The fair's decision to invite contemporary dealers, in order to attract other emblems of collector, also inspired the traditional stands to diversify. Fiore de Brantes, for instance, tendered both a French Regence period fireplace, c 1730 and a place of 1969 Sciolary lamps, of cuboid shape on the other hand composed of many small overlapping metal plates. Meanwhile, Michael Nolte of Munster hung a Kirchner above a Dresden cabinet, c 1765

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