International

A New York judge has set the date for the start of the trial of Sir Anthony Tennant and Alfred Taubman on price fixing charges.

ANOTHER New York City fair will be inaugurated this autumn when The Connoisseur’s Antiques Fair is launched by veteran New York organiser Sanford Smith at the 69th Regiment Armory, Lexington Avenue and 26th Street, from November 16 to 19.

The annual Hong-Kong coin sale presided over by Baldwin-Ma-Gillio-Monetarium is always a big draw. This one, number 33, including the semi-annual sales at Singapore, is scheduled for August 30.

A DISPUTE over rent and refurbishment could spell the end of ewolfs.com, the Ohio-based online auction house, who have shed 20 of their 24 staff and shut down temporarily in the crisis.

USA: Christie’s New York are relocating and restructuring a number of their departments in preparation for the assimilation of Christie’s East into the company’s Rockefeller headquarters.

US-based Ableauctions have made an offer to acquire fellow online auctions firm ICollector in a share swap deal that values ICollector at £9.8m ($13.9m).

AMONG the earlier travel books in the June 14 sale held by Pacific Book Auctions was a 1632 first edition of Bernal Diaz del Castillo’s famous first-hand account of the conquest of Mexico, Historia Verdadera de la Conquesta de la Nueva-España. An ex-Nottingham Free Library copy in a 20th century quarter morocco binding, it had stamps to the title and other pages and a few other shortcomings of condition, but it is an important work and sold at $5000 (£3625).

Some 15 years ago figurative painter Claudia Williams (born 1933) and her husband, artist Gwilym Prichard, left North Wales to settle in France. It was not long before they made their mark on the French art scene, their work being represented in many shows and each being awarded the Silver Medal by the Academy of Arts, Science and Letters, Paris in 1995.

ANY aspirant outlaw should know that in order to ensure a special place in folk tradition it is no good just killing and robbing, you have to acquire an idiosyncrasy or two that will add gloss to the flyposters and newspaper reports, and keep storytellers exciting children for generations to come.

FRANCE: THE make-up of the Conseil des Ventes, the new auction watchdog to vet all companies wishing to stage auctions in France, has been announced far quicker than expected.

FRANCE: FRENCH auction law reform should finally be introduced on October 1, although it could take months after that date before overseas auctioneers will be allowed to hold sales.

One would expect to see a Winchester 1873 ‘repeater’ holding up a bank in Santa Fe, not aimed at a tiger in the Indian Raj, but strangely enough it appears that Edward, Prince of Wales had more in common with outlaws like Angelo and Jesse James than previously realised.

FRANCE: Auction sales in Paris in the first six months of 2001 totalled Fr2.56bn (£240m), a rise of 10 per cent compared to the same period in 2000. Art sales (as opposed to sales of vehicles or industrial material) showed an even sharper increase, up 12 per cent at Fr2.1bn (£195m).

dmg world media have continued their expansion in the United States with the acquisition of the Metrolina Antiques and Collectibles Fairs from GAH International Limited in Charlotte, North Carolina.

GERMANY: Over the last few years there has been an increasing awareness that high quality works will always fetch exceptional auction prices almost regardless of where they come up for sale.

NEW YORK-based British-born dealer Adam Williams is expected to appeal against his conviction in a French court for receiving stolen property.

GERMANY: Lempertz’ Old Masters in Cologne on May 19 produced a hammer total of DM6.7m (£2.1m) and a surprise price of DM192,000 (£60,000), paid by the Italian trade against an estimate of just DM4000, for a Bildnis eines Singers, a portrait of a singer with crimson turban and coat, his left forefinger resting on a musical score, 3ft 1in x 2ft 6in (93 x 77cm).

THE Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts has acquired one of the world’s most important collections of English Silver, that of Alan and Simone Hartman.

FRANCE: There was plenty of auction activity, but few front-line prices, in Lyon in June.

USA: THE United States government is taking serious steps to beat Internet fraud and is consulting leading e-commerce figures on how to go about it.