Budapest may be a city of artists, with a monumental National Gallery dedicated to Hungarian painting and countless private ones dotted around the city, but it’s only fairly recently that it has acquired its own art quarter. The story of how it came about may lack the longevity of its counterpart in Paris, the St-Paul neighbourhood of the Marais, but the plethora of galleries, dealers and antique shops is no less dense. Throw in a few auction houses where paintings have sold for record-breaking amounts, and you have a very lively scene indeed – and all, pretty much, along one single street.
Parallel to the Danube, leading from Parliament to the Nagykörút near Margaret Bridge, tree-lined Falk Miksa utca originally contained one such business, the State-owned pawnbrokers and auction house BÁV.
With the change of régime, several private art collectors, gallerists and antique dealers moved in. Like Paris, Budapest would soon have its own quarter for sought-after, specialist boutiques.
Already an art dealer and significant private collector for over a decade, Tamás Kieselbach set up here in 1994, shifting his business to its now famous location at the former Luxor Café, on the opposite corner to BÁV, in 1996. In September 1997, Kieselbach held his first auction here, and this became a major gathering point for international buyers. In 2006, Kieselbach had a key role in the most expensive sale of a Hungarian painting, Tivadar Csontváry’s Meeting of Lovers, for 280 million forints.
In the same year that Tamás Kieselbach staged his first auction, Judit Virág, previously of the prestigious Kiscelli Museum, set up her own gallery and auction house. Given her expertise, Virág decided to specialise in Hungarian painting of the 19th and 20th centuries, and Zsolnay ceramics. Not did her free exhibitions promoting Hungarian art become essential cultural events, but her high-spec catalogues were collector’s items. In 2012, her gallery was also involved in a groundbreaking sale of a work by Csontváry, his Traui Landscape at Sunset sold at auction for 240 million forints.
By now, there were dozens of exquisite and fascinating boutiques, including Moro, specialising in antique weaponry and Oriental artefacts, and the Nagyházi Gallery, one of Hungary’s most venerable auction houses, founded by numismatist János Nagyházi. Its expansive auction room holds separate and regular sales of paintings, sculpture, works of art, jewellery, silver and folk art. Behind it all is a trusted team of professionals, restorers, art historians and art treasurers. Both of these institutions have been in place on Falk Miksa utca since the early 1990s.
Mention must also be made of Wladis, a jewellery workshop and outlet established by professor Vladimir Péter in 1993, its designs linked to the European classical tradition but with their own timeless quality.
Due to be held for the 20th time in the spring of 2020, the Falk Art Fórum perfectly illustrates the wealth of art and antiques showcased along this street of gilded frames and rare artefacts.