Europe

Scandinavian auction house Bukowskis have a new owner.

There are signs that many other member states are waking up to Britain’s warning of the threat of droit de suite, or the artists’ resale right, to the European art market.

A spectacular sleeper was awoken in Sweden on December 5 when an oil sketch catalogued as in the manner of Peter Paul Rubens sold to a British buyer at SEK16.6m (£1,298,000) amidst speculation it was by the artist himself.

LONDON-based specialist book auctioneers Bloomsbury Auctions enjoyed a successful inaugural sale in Rome on December 6 where a total of €801,000 (£545,000) was realised.

Christie’s confirmed their Paris dominance in 2006 by posting sales of €200.8m (£135m), up 74 per cent on the previous year.

THE British art trade has paid out over £1m since Droit de Suite came into force at the start of the year. Despite some initial bureaucratic difficulties, the Artists’ Resale Right appears to have been implemented more smoothly in Britain than in other European countries.

HOTELS, restaurants, insurance, security, shippers and packers, design and print, marketing and promotion. These are just some of the ancillary industries that benefit when the show comes to town.

Christie’s are to increase the number of European salerooms offering the Christie’s Live online bidding feature.

WHEN TEFAF Maastricht opens its doors next March, something will be different. An extraordinary sequence of events means that for the first time, the world’s two biggest auctioneers will effectively stand as exhibitors at the world’s most important fair for specialist dealers in fine art and antiques.

The 2001 Irish heritage laws are again being tested after a local council announced its intent to stop the sale of an 18th century fireplace on the grounds that – although not fitted in the property until the early 1970s – it is now an essential feature of the house.

The reform of auction law forced itself to the top of the agenda when delegates from SYMEV, France’s national auctioneers association, sat down at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris on October 3 for their annual conference.

Giuseppe Eskenazi, London’s pre-eminent dealer in Chinese works of art, has been appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d’honneur for services to the arts.

CHRISTIE’S are to centralise all Italian sales in Milan and will concentrate on Contemporary and Modern art, Old Masters and jewellery.

ON September 12 – the week the Paris Biennale returned to the Grand Palais – Paris celebrated another notable development on the city’s art scene with the launch of Galerie Historismus at 9 Place de Vosges, the oldest square in Paris.

ESTABLISHED in London since 1928, Pelham Galleries have moved out of their well-known Mayfair showrooms in Mount Street and are now based in their greatly expanded gallery at Rue de Varenne, Paris.

Sara Kenny, a former director of the fine art department at Hamilton Osbourne King, is to conduct her first major sale since the Dublin property giants pulled out of the auction business in August last year.

CAPITALISING on the recent closure of Christie’s book department in Rome, Bloomsbury Auctions have opened a new saleroom in the Eternal City. It represents the first overseas venture for the Maddox Street book specialists who in recent years have expanded their interests into art, prints, collectables, coins and medals.

DESCRIBED on their website as a place to find “Designer Secondhand Goods of the 20th Century”, Les Puces du Design is a popular street event held biannually in Paris for the last 15 years.

THIEVES have raided a fair in Belgium and stolen antique jewellery from one of Europe's leading dealers in period jewellery.