International

About 80% of the global art market by value takes place outside the UK. The largest art market in the world is the US with China in third place (after the UK) followed by France, Germany and Switzerland.

Many more nations have a rich art and antiques heritage with active auction, dealer, fair, gallery and museum sectors even if their market size by value is smaller.

Read the top stories and latest art and antiques news from all these countries.

Vase

Monumental Meiji vase 'rediscovered' in a Californian restaurant comes to auction

14 January 2019

For over a century, a monumental 8ft (2.44m) high Meiji cloisonné vase provided the focal point to one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s oldest restaurants.

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Pick of the week: Buyer does give a hoot for splendid Athenian coin

14 January 2019

The Athenian silver dekadrachm c.469/465-460BC is among the ancient world’s most celebrated coins – and a splendid example appeared for sale in New York last week.

Paris, France

French auction houses toast solid annual sales results as Sotheby's tops the table

14 January 2019

Sotheby’s France was the top performer in the country last year, boosted by the sale of a Qianlong mark and period vase that became the most expensive lot sold in France in 2018.

British and Irish book auctions: January 15-31, 2019

14 January 2019

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from January 15-31, 2019.

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Florida fairs: Sunshine State finds stability

14 January 2019

The closure of south Florida’s primary exhibition venue for a two-year, $615m refurbishment threw the annual winter pilgrimage to the Sunshine State into flux. Perhaps, now that works at the Miami Beach Convention Center are largely complete, 2019 will be a little more straightforward.

Heading Stateside: Winter pilgrimage to US for key events in New York and Florida is under way

14 January 2019

With the auction scene in Continental Europe at a traditional low ebb in the first month of the year, the focus for international art world activity shifts across to the US.

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Holy Roman Emperor honoured as a star attraction

14 January 2019

A 1627, Ulm first of Johannes Kepler’s 'Tabulae Rudolphinae…', an important astronomical work named in honour of the then Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, sold for SKr350,000 (£30,535) on December 7.

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Highlights of New York drawings auctions include single-owner lots with provenance to Dutch king

14 January 2019

For many years New York’s major salerooms mounted auction series of Old Master paintings, drawings and sculpture in the first months of the year immediately following their Americana series.

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Arthur Rackham ups and downs at online auction

14 January 2019

Illustrations offered as part of an online Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9% buyer’s premium) sale held in early December included a couple of Arthur Rackhams.

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Thirty dealers gather in the Big Apple for Master Drawings New York 2019

14 January 2019

'Master Drawings New York', the gallery-based event in Manhattan Upper East side started 13 years ago, timed to coincide with the major January/February auctions of Old Master paintings and drawings in the Big Apple.

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Meissen sea goddess figure group at Leslie Hindman leads selection of US auction highlights

14 January 2019

A late 19th century Meissen figure group offered at Leslie Hindman in Chicago features in ATG's selection of auction highlights in the US this winter.

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Miss Lonelyhearts is cherished

14 January 2019

Inscribed to a fellow dramatist, a presentation copy of the 1933 first of Nathaniel West’s classic black comedy, Miss Lonelyhearts, did exceptionally well at Christie’s New York (25/20/12.5%).

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European works of art prominent at venerable Park Avenue Armory event

14 January 2019

Seventy antique dealers and galleries from the US and overseas will gather at the Park Avenue Armory for the 65th edition of the 'Winter Show'.

Measuring a painting ready for shipping.

We need clarity on customs, say art shippers

07 January 2019

UK art shippers are urging the government to speed up Brexit ‘deal or no deal’ preparations at the country’s major ferry ports as the UK prepares to leave the European Union on March 29.

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Pick of the week: US celebration of English silver on New Year’s Day

07 January 2019

Auctions on New Year’s Day are a tradition in regional North America. The sale at Nadeau’s in Windsor, Connecticut, on the first day of 2019 included a collection of 17th and 18th century English silver that had been given to Yale University in 1896 in memory of a former alumnus, the Pennsylvania coal baron James Browne Neale.

Christie’s saleroom in Paris

Christie’s wins fight in France to charge resale right on buyers not sellers

07 January 2019

Supreme Court in Paris rules that auction house can now charge buyers rather than sellers for artist levy.

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Expressionist work by Kirchner tops list at Berlin auction

07 January 2019

Topping the results list at a recent sale at Grisebach (30/25/20% buyer’s premium) in Berlin was a work by the German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner that was created on island in the Baltic.

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No language barrier to sales of Nuremburg Chronicle at auction

07 January 2019

German and Latin versions of ‘Nuremburg Chronicle’ impress in separate sales.

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Price of Robert Capa’s 'Falling Soldier' photograph rises high

07 January 2019

One of the most iconic photographic images of war came under the hammer at a recent Westlicht (20% buyer’s premium) auction in Vienna.

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Blaeu townbook with wind in its sails

07 January 2019

Bound as two volumes in contemporary red morocco gilt, its plates and plans finely coloured and gilt heightened throughout, an exceptional example of Joan Blaeu’s celebrated 17th century townbook of the Netherlands was offered in a recent American sale.

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