Europe

One highlight of the rentrée is the scholarly exhibitions put on at the same time as the 'Biennale' by the Paris dealership Galerie Kugel.

In Europe summer is traditionally a time of lower activity for much of the working world with schools closed and people heading off for a long break. This is especially true in France, so when activity rekindles in September the French make a big thing of La Rentrée (the return to work).

A well-established lynchpin of the Paris rentrée is the gallery-based, Left Bank tribal art fair known as the 'Parcours des Mondes' (PDM) staged in the small galleries that pepper the network of streets in the 6th arrondisement antiques district around Saint Germain des Prés.

Cristina Ortega is a specialist in Chinese and Japanese ceramics with a gallery in the rue de Beaune. Now taking part in her eighth Parcours de la Céramique, she remains very enthusiastic about the possibilities…

The auction season is only just getting into gear in September but as this is a hectic time of year for fairs and dealers, most auction houses are keen to capitalise on the potential footfall to the Grand Palais and the Left Bank dealers’ trails.

More than 90 exhibitors will gather at the Grand Palais in September for the Biennale Paris, France’s premier art and antiques fair.

All auctions are the same aren’t they? Well not exactly.

The Biennale has restructured as the fair evolves into an annual event. ATG talks to chief organiser and SNA president, Mathias Ary Jan, to hear how the changes are not just practical but cultural as well...

As France’s main tribal art showcase, the 'Parcours des Mondes', prepares for its latest staging ATG speaks to Pierre Moos, director of Tribal Art Management, organiser of the event. Moos outlines its origins, his role in its growth and how it has changed since its inception.

After a summer break, the next auction session at Duran Subastas in Madrid on September 21 will feature a special section of 33 lots of Ethiopian art, including intricately decorated wooden crucifixes, bibles, paintings and thrones, all coming to auction from a private collection.

The second, and final, instalment of the collection of the Viennese art dealer Reinhold Hofstatter will come up for sale at Dorotheum’s Vienna rooms on September 26.

Music, in printed editions rather than autograph scores, played a significant part in raising a premium-inclusive €1.65m (£1.45m) for the third portion of the Pierre Bergé library to come to auction.

The ancient Tuscan city of Arezzo, with its Roman ruins, medieval walls, Renaissance architecture and murals by Piero della Francesca, has long been a magnet for art lovers.

More than 100 Russian paintings consigned from a single source went under the hammer at Moore Allen & Innocent’s (18% buyer’s premium) July 7 sale in Cirencester.

The sales held by a variety of Monaco auction houses that are a feature of the summer season are traditionally big on jewellery, cars and Hermès handbags and other luxury accessories and modern art.

The summer season brought a raft of modern art sales to continental Europe and the various salerooms around Germany were no exception.

The unexpected highlight of a recent sale at Beurret & Bailly (20% buyer’s premium) in Basel was a work by the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) which had been considered lost for over a century.