International

Christie’s will test the potentially lucrative waters of the Middle Eastern market in situ by holding an inaugural sale in Dubai this spring.

Ninety-one-year-old John Werner Kluge is the stuff of the American Dream – a German immigrant who amassed his fortune in the States buying radio and television stations.

Sales at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris rose 16 per cent in 2005 to €414m (£280m), but firms based elsewhere in the city also continued to increase their market share.

AFTER buying two of the most famous flea-markets in Paris, the Duke of Westminster’s property company and their partners say they will undertake new ways of promoting the historic sites.

...and I’ll fight it in the courts if I have to

18th century French furniture was much in evidence on both sides of the Channel at the end of last year. It was the mainstay of two single-owner collections offered at the height of the pre-Christmas season.

FOR the second week in a row a Government U-turn has dealt the British art and antiques industry a bodyblow – but the latest move is far more serious than last week’s SIPPs debacle.

Who has the resale right? The artist holding copyright of their work or a qualifying body to whom they have assigned the right under the regulations, such as a charity. Until January 1, 2010, the right only applies if the artist is living.

A poster for the film Metropolis, considered by many to be the holy grail of science fiction posters, has been sold by London dealers The Reel Poster Gallery to a Californian private collector for $690,000 (£390,000).

INTERNATIONAL exhibition and publishing company dmg world media have acquired Chicago-based Expressions of Culture Inc., producers of SOFA Chicago and SOFA New York.

AN innovative device for securing paintings has won wide recognition at a prestigious European scientific and engineering event.

Dreweatt Neate Fine Art have arranged a major private treaty sale to the National Library of Australia, on behalf of a prominent UK family, of a historically important folio of watercolours.

THE Swiss authorities have launched a criminal investigation into scam guide firms and their associated debt recovery agencies.

The emerging class of wealthy Chinese buyers continues to boost the top-end of the art and antiques market in the Far East. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that Sotheby’s set a house record in this autumn’s Hong Kong series, taking HK$850.9m (£61.7m) from seven sales.

Less than a month after celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show has been acquired by the managing partners of the Palm Beach Jewelry & Antique Show from Frank Farbenbloom.

BY IVAN MACQUISTEN Droit de Suite, the much-feared extra levy on art sales, cannot now be introduced in the UK on January 1 next year.

BY IVAN MACQUISTENROBERT Brooks has been nailing his colours to the mast in more ways than one in the past week.

Neal Auction Co., temporarily displaced from their New Orleans headquarters, will hold their annual Louisiana Purchase sale on December 3-4 in Jackson, Mississippi.

Christie’s, the first Western auction house to establish a representative office in China in 1994, have joined forces with Forever, a newly-established Beijing-based auction house, to hold their first sale in mainland China next month.

A French court has upheld the right of Paris auction firm Artcurial to use the name F. Tajan in their full title Artcurial Briest-Le Fur-Poulain-F. Tajan.