International

DESPITE the uncertain economic conditions that have cooled the art market in Australia, last month saw a new high for one the country’s most highly regarded artists.

HUNDREDS of union members and supporters protested outside Sotheby’s Manhattan showroom last week following the lockout of most of its portering staff.

THE Westport Police Department is investigating the theft of two Chinese Louhan head sculptures, recently stolen from a private collection in Westport, Connecticut.

THIS carved and painted figurehead of a country girl once adorned the bow of The Coonatto, an English ship that served the Australian wool and tea trade.

As the spectre of droit de suite for artists’ heirs looms large over the British art market, the main copyright and licensing collecting agency in the United States is pushing to see the debate over artists’ resale rights revived on Capitol Hill.

AUCTIONEERS Baldwin's have announced the sale of what is being billed as the most important collection of ancient Greek coins to come to auction in nearly a quarter of a century.

THIS Holtzapffel & Deyerlein ornamental turning lathe made in London c.1827 came up for sale at Skinner in Marlborough, Massachusetts in a Science, Technology and Clocks sale.

FRENCH auction houses have won their battle to conduct private treaty sales.

ICONIC is the only word to describe two gold medals offered at a recent sale by Noble Numismatics of Melbourne, Australia.

THE US Appeals Court has upheld the New York District Court ruling in Christie’s favour in the dispute over a long-lost work thought to be by Leonardo da Vinci.

Making a record price for any Venetian view painting at auction, Francesco Guardi's (1712-1793) monumental View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon sold for £23.8m hammer at Sotheby's Old Master evening sale on July 7.

SPIRALLING debts and a lack of prospects have forced the closure of Finarte Casa d’Aste S.p.A., formerly a major player in the Italian auctions scene.

GERMAN fine art auctioneers Ketterer Kunst will move their Hamburg branch to new premises later this month after ten years in the Messberghof.

IT took 50 bids and half an hour to auction this RMB370m (£35m) scroll, by Qi Baishi (1864-1957) at Beijing's China Guardian on May 22 – the latest demonstration of the breadth of mainland demand for modern Chinese paintings by the country's most acclaimed artists.

THE man who oversaw the French Revolution's 'reign of terror' but who finally met his end at the guillotine himself, Maximilien de Robespierre, was back on the block again at the end of last month as Sotheby's auctioned an extraordinary cache of documents in Paris.

ONE of the USA’s largest regional salerooms, New Orleans Auction Galleries, have filed for bankruptcy protection but struck a deal to keep trading that will ensure all consignors are paid.

THE organisers of the UK’s largest contemporary art fair, Frieze, are launching two new events for 2012.

THE Australian art and antiques industry has formed its own version of the British Art Market Federation following what it calls “several years of uncertainty in the Australian art market”.

THE latest sales of Contemporary art in New York produced some solid results, but buyers were selective and not all the projected highlights fulfilled vendors’ expectations.

THE contstant jockeying for position in the Australian art and antiques auctions market continues with the appointment of Mark Fraser as chairman of Bonhams Australia with immediate effect.