International

SCIENTISTS in Australia have developed a new method of identifying of ancient Chinese ceramics which could play a major role in the battle against fakes.

France’s Auctioneers’ Association SYMEV is to stage the first-ever Journées Nationales des Ventes aux Enchères (National Auction Weekend) on November 19-20.

MALLETT, one of Bond Street’s most famous names, are to expand their New York branch, with work hopefully starting in November.

INITIAL Government responses to recommendations made during the consultation on droit de suite are encouraging for the art market.

A DECADE after the Thurn und Taxis and Baden Baden sales in the 1990s, Sotheby’s are once again decamping to a German castle to stage another mammoth aristocratic auction.

One of Manhattan’s best-known antique centres, The Showplace, is expanding its 30,000 square ft premises with the addition of a new floor that will open in early October.

Strengthening their position as Ireland’s largest auction house, James Adam & Sons have been assigned the fine art business of major Dublin rival and property giant Hamilton Osborne King.

SOTHEBY’s are to launch a sale in January that will openly rely entirely upon dealers’ stock for its content.

NO issue has caused more reader complaints to ATG in the past decade than scam guides targeting the trade. Now there is a chance to put a stop to them by signing up to a Europe-wide campaign.

Stair Galleries and Restoration will move into new headquarters in Hudson New York in August.

Christie’s New York are selling the Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana in three portions.

BRUSSELS FAIR PREVIEW Over 100 dealers – half from abroad – will gather in Brussels from June 8-12.

by Ian McKayUNDOUBTEDLY one of the more famous of cartographic curiosities, the ‘Leo Belgicus’ map, in which the 17 provinces of the Low Countries are depicted in the form of a lion, was first introduced by Michael Eitzinger as part of a topographical and historical account of the Netherlands, published in Cologne in 1583.

François Pinault, the French business tycoon who owns Christie’s, has abandoned his plans to build a £100m museum near Paris to house his Contemporary art collection.

AT this year’s CINOA General Assembly, held in New York from May 12 to 14, delegates representing dealers associations from more than 20 countries discussed two political areas which they felt threatened the international art market.

François Tajan, who quit as chairman of Tajan SA, the firm founded by his father Jacques, at the end of March, has joined Paris rivals ArtCurial.

Bird in Space, right, an unrecorded marble version of one of Constantin Brancusi’s most celebrated and iconic subjects, was the toast of Christie’s $126.8m Impressionist and Modern art sale last week in New York.

A SNATCHED moment frozen in time thanks to the lucky presence of a camera... or was it?

Christie's New York (10/12% Buyer's premium)SNUFF bottles vary enormously in quality and price but the J&J collection has to rank as one of the world’s foremost specialist holdings. Although these exquisitely made and highly decorative vessels have a following of strong international collectors, inevitably there are limited buyers for top-end imperial quality works.

Sotheby's New York (20/12% Buyer's Premium) PRICES have steadily risen in recent years for paintings by India’s most established modern artists notably Maqbool Fida Husain (b.1915) and Francis Newton Souza (1924-2002).