International

THERE were suppressed cries of irritation from the public at the May 8 sale held in Madrid by Alcalá Subastas as the Spanish State pre-empted all the important lots of the evening, including two newly-discovered paintings by Goya.

THE Hindenburg archive, which includes the famous Leica and accessories recovered from the wreckage by Fritz Deeg, the steward onboard the airship when disaster struck on May 6, 1937, is being offered by WestLicht on May 23 and 24.

MORE than 200 dealers, mainly from New England, will gather at the Concert Field of Waterloo village, Stanhope, New Jersey over the weekend of May 17 and 18 for the state’s largest and oldest outdoor fair.

Illustrated right is one of 15 chromolitho plates after pastel originals by Étienne Léopold Trouvelot that make up a scarce, complete set of The Trouvelot Astronomical Drawings, the work of a keen observer and talented artist who spent the years 1872-74 using the 15in refractor at Harvard Observatory.

PARIS expert Alain Weil must be a busy man as he was also the expert for Pierre Bergé & Associés general sale on April 3 that included a 76-lot section devoted to médailles artistique, to use the French expression.

Christian Deydier was re-elected President of France's Syndicat National des Antiquaires in Paris on April 30. The feistily flamboyant Deydier has vowed to “continue to adopt a dynamic and innovative approach” towards “developing the profession and defending its interests”, notably with regard to Unidroit and import VAT.

CHRISTIE’S, who have postponed their April Hong Kong sales because of the SARS outbreak, have now published a revised list of sale dates for July.

ART collectors in Italy in possession of illegally acquired antiquities may now be able to come clean to the authorities and keep the works concerned.

Coming up in SYDNEY: THIS table once graced the office of swashbuckling multi-millionaire Australian businessman Alan Bond, but its Australian connections go far deeper. English, and c.1810 it is a library table in the Greek Revival taste inlaid with English oak from HMS Resolution, Captain Cook’s final ship, and with ivory panels inscribed – Part of HMS Resolution – Sacred to the Memory of Captn. Cook – Deriving worth from Cook’s illustrious name – This ship shall live in rolls of endless fame.

FRENCH auctioneers are trying to build links with the British Art Market Federation to campaign against damaging European Union regulations which are driving business across the Atlantic to the USA.

A JUNE 3 New York court hearing will rule whether Sotheby’s and Christie’s should pay $40m compensation to clients who bought and sold at their auctions outside the US during the 1990s.

May 2003 will see the largest migration of antique dealers in Toronto’s history as the 25-year lease on the city’s Harbourfront Antique Market ends and the market’s 50 dealers move to two new homes in the heart of the city’s tourist and entertainment district.

Minton did majolica just a bit better than anyone else – not just in their large monumental and sculptural pieces but also in the smaller and more mundane wares.

MIGHTY Maastricht closed on Sunday March 23 and if there ever was any dispute as to whether this was the best antiques and art show in the world then the debate must now be over. In the most adverse circumstances – and they don’t get much more adverse than a war breaking out halfway through proceedings – the fair again triumphed and more business was achieved than at any fair since last year’s Maastricht.

A rare discovery of two completely unknown paintings by Goya has aroused considerable interest in Madrid. Discovered during a visit to a family in Madrid, the two paintings of Tobias and the Angel and The Holy Family were identified by the picture expert of Alcalá Subastas, Richard de Willermin.

Louise MacBain, who recently quit as chief executive of auctioneers Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, has agreed to acquire Art & Auction magazine from LVMH Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

NOTED New York specialists in Japanese works of art Flying Cranes are not only showing at the International Asian Art Fair from March 28 to April 2 at the Seventh Regiment Armory, they also hold an exhibition of exceptional Japanese studio ceramics by 19th century court artists at their main showroom, Gallery 58 at the Manhattan Art & Antiques Center, 1050 Second Avenue at 56th Street.

A veritable feast of textiles from an older era will be up for grabs in a big way next month in Paris when French auctioneer Olivier Coutau-Begarie holds a mammoth two-day dispersal at Richelieu-Drouot on April 29 and 30 of over 5000 pieces of antique silks, tapestries and embroideries from the House of Hamot, a French textile retailer and manufacturer of carpets and tapestries.

ON May 6 Vienna’s top auction house, Dorotheum, holds an important Design sale featuring works from the turn of the last century by such luminaries as Adolf Loos, Josef Hofmann and Carlo Bugatti through to some 20 square metres of aluminium flooring from the Berlin Skoda Boutique, designed by Mark Newson in 1992.

The twice-a-year Baldwin, Ma, Gillio, Monetarium sale of Far Eastern coins this time took place in Singapore on March 6. There has been a sea-change in the type of goods offered. Hitherto Chinese coins of all periods have been on sale. The Chinese have a penchant for dollar-sized silver coins. Indeed there are many varieties which were struck for major cities in that vast country. What has changed is that in this sale there was an emphasis on these later coins.