March 17 (Bloomberg) -- A yellow diamond priced at about 7 million euros ($11 million) was among the last big sales at Tefaf, the world's largest art and antiques fair, which closed yesterday in the Dutch city of Maastricht.

The 70.12-carat emerald-cut stone was sold on Saturday by the London jewelry dealers Graff to a European client.

``There's a lot of fear in the financial markets at the moment. We're seeing a flight to real assets,'' said Francois Graff, managing director of the New Bond Street-based jewelers, in a telephone interview yesterday.

Tefaf said 73,245 people had attended the fair, an increase of 3.3 percent on 2007, even as gloom gripped financial markets. So far, a total of 165 museums from 18 countries are known to have visited the event. No overall sales figures were available.

``Dealers said several hundreds of millions of euros of works were sold, but many sales will only be finalized days or weeks after the fair,'' said Will Bennett, a Tefaf press officer.

Graff said strong demand for commodities outstripping supply had led to an ``exponential'' rise in the price of diamonds.

On March 6, during the preview of Tefaf, a diamond necklace priced at 1.2 million euros was stolen from the stand of London jewelry dealers Hancocks.

Shortly after the theft, two Mexican women and a man from Costa Rica were arrested by police. The necklace, made in 1948 by American goldsmith William Ruser, has not been found, said Tefaf.

``It's gone. It's probably been broken up by now,'' said Hancocks director, Duncan Semmens, at Tefaf on Saturday. ``It was a really unpleasant moment.''

Van Gogh Talks

The most expensive item at the fair was Vincent van Gogh's 1890 painting, ``The Child with an Orange,'' offered by the London dealers Dickinson on behalf of a Swiss family, priced at around $30 million.

James Roundell, a director at Dickinson, said negotiations were continuing for the sale of the Van Gogh work to a private client.

``Lawyers are meeting virtually every day. These things take time,'' said Roundell. He said his gallery, which mainly sells works on consignment, had sold more than 15 paintings, including ``The Sacrifice of Iphigenia'' by 17th-century Dutch artist Jan Steen for 8 million euros. ``This has been our most successful- ever Tefaf,'' said Roundell.

This year 225 private planes landed at Maastricht airport, 80 fewer than in 2007, said Tefaf.

Chinese Demand

According to Tefaf, a Beijing-based buyer who landed at Amsterdam airport paid around 350,000 euros for a Chinese late 16th century huanghuali wood table from the Hong Kong dealer Grace Wu Bruce.

Several dealers said strong European buying had compensated for any loss of American visitors discouraged by a weak dollar and fears that the U.S. economy is slipping into recession.

``We've seen fewer Americans, but our sales have been much better than last year,'' said Swiss-based medieval-manuscript dealer Heribert Tenschert, who sold the early 16th-century Flemish ``Negrone Hours'' for 5 million euros at the preview to a European collector who also buys contemporary art.

``It's encouraging that people are now not just following the latest sensation, but buying things whose quality just overwhelms the eye,'' said Tenschert yesterday in a telephone interview.

Twombly's Purchases

Tefaf said American artist Cy Twombly was among the contemporary-art collectors buying historic objects at the fair.

Royal-Athena Galleries of New York sold Twombly a Greek bronze helmet and a large Hellenistic silver urn, both dating from the 3rd to 4th centuries B.C., for undisclosed prices, said Tefaf.

London-based Old Master paintings dealer Johnny van Haeften said contemporary-art collectors had been among the buyers of the 20 paintings he sold.

A 16th century oil on copper, ``Aeneas and the Sibyl in the Underworld,'' by Jan Breughel the Younger with an asking price of $5.8 million went to a U.S. client.

``We priced everything in dollars. It's a psychological thing,'' said Van Haeften. ``For Americans, that's just the price, and for Europeans things seem cheaper when they convert to euros or pounds.''

In the modern and contemporary section, Brussels-based Galerie Vedovi sold two $1 million Lucio Fontana paintings -- one to a U.S. collector -- plus a Rene Magritte work for a further 1.5 million euros.

``People are taking more time to buy, but it's better that things are more selective,'' said gallery director Paolo Vedovi.

Andrew Fabricant, of New York's Richard Gray Gallery, encountered little demand for post-1960s contemporary art.

``This is a fair geared to the European market for Impressionist and modern painting,'' said Fabricant at Tefaf on Saturday. ``It has a great audience, but these people realize they can buy something that could be in the Louvre for the price of a Damien Hirst spot painting.''

(Scott Reyburn writes about the art market for Bloomberg News. Any opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Reyburn in London at sreyburn@hotmail.com.

Last Updated: March 17, 2008 06:31 EDT