News

First antiques event set for early February: Scott Sandman, media relations chief at the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, has confirmed that New York City’s armories are once again open for business.

A court decision to proceed with a case against a member of the trade is expected to deal a major blow to the United States’ antiquities business.

IT was apparent on the second day of the first major fair of the year, The LAPADA Antiques and Fine Art Fair which opened at Birmingham’s NEC on January 16, that there is no marked upturn in business following a despondent 2001.

Finelot chairman John Bly reassured investors last week that the on-line dealership, which made a loss of £1.44m last year, should make a profit by 2004.

FRANCE: Just weeks after Sotheby’s and Christie’s first sales in Paris, the Hôtel Drouot is the target of two takeover bids, from Barclays Private Equity, an investment fund, and Pierre Bergé, longtime president of the Yves St-Laurent fashion house and a former chairman of the Paris Opera.

LONDON: Three dealers exhibiting at the Spring Fine Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia in West London will hold a concurrent joint exhibition just two minutes’ walk away from the West London exhibition complex, with the object of pulling in the public and any decorators who are in town.

In October 1987, Christie’s embarked on a series of six sales to dispose of the Doheny library, a spectacular series of auctions that ended in May 1989 and raised a grand total of $38m – a sum that remains to this day a record for any library sold at auction.