Europe

The impact of Brexit on UK overseas trade has led one auction house to open a saleroom in the Netherlands.

Auction firms in France followed a more traditional course in 2023 according to the latest figures.

In Ireland, Adam’s of Dublin held 32 auctions over the course of 2023, raising a hammer total of €13.8m (£12m) which was up from €12.6m in 2022.

The bright blue iridescent feathers of the kingfisher have been used to decorate objects and jewellery and items of personal adornment for over 2000 years in China, where the birds are also known as jade or jadeite birds.

Two exceptional pieces of Venini glass surfaced at auction in the final days of 2023 on different sides of the Atlantic.

A “true gentleman”, who was “full of cheerfulness, good humour”, and with a “ready smile”, are some of the words used on rip.ie to describe the late George Mealy, who died on December 22.

As well as being an artist’s model and gallery owner who founded the museum dedicated to the work of the sculptor Aristide Maillol, Dina Vierny was also known as a collector of antique dolls.

A piece of furniture produced for the French king heads back to former repository now open to the public

The 69th edition of BRAFA, Belgium’s longstanding art and antiques fair, starts this month opening to the public on January 28 and continuing to February 4.

It was in the hope of saving on the huge sums spent procuring works of art from abroad that Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s minister of finance, began inviting craftsmen to work at the Gobelins royal manufactory on the outskirts of Paris.

In one of the last auctions to take place at Drouot in 2023, a newly discovered portrait by Jean-Honoré Fragonard was pursued to €2.5m (£2.17m) at Boisgirard-Antonini (30% buyer’s premium).

Very much the highest price in a recent sale held by Beaussant Lefèvre (28% buyer’s premium) at Drouot was the €95,000 (£82,610) paid for a rare Gallé glass vase.

The extensive auctions at Schuler (23/20/16% buyer’s premium) in Zürich always contain at least one truly spectacular result and the latest three-day sale was no exception.

The work of Belgian artist celebrated in his day is coveted by modern collectors judging by latest sales.

Malagan figures played an integral and complex role in the rituals of the tribes of New Ireland, the north-eastern province of Papua New Guinea.