France

A raft of Modern and Contemporary art auctions were held in Paris in the second half of October coinciding with the Paris + par Art Basel fair held at the Grand Palais Ephemère.

The career of the French artist Pierre Soulages spanned over 80 years. He died in 2022 at the age of 102.

Old Master drawings inscribed for Flemish artist Hans Bols blow away the estimates in Chartres

An example of 20th century French-influenced painting by the Vietnamese artist Mai-Thu (1906-80) proved to be atop-selling lot.

A collection of Chinese art from a German family collection formed over many decades is to be offered in Paris by Bonhams Cornette Saint Cyr on October 26.

On December 5 in Paris Tajan will be selling items from a private collection of jewellery assembled over the past 40 years.

On November 8 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Aguttes will auction contents from La Maison Sémonville.

The Roger Capron Navettes table from Tajan’s (26/21/14% buyer’s premium) September 19 sale of modern and contemporary ceramics, which was previewed in ATG No 2609, sold for €1000 (£870) including premium.

Relic belonging to French military hero sells in Versailles, with one of Napoleon’s bicorn hats still to come

A rediscovered 17th century painting of Moses by Italian Baroque artist Giovanni Francesco Barbieri (1591– 1666), known as il Guercino, is being offered at Moretti Fine Art of Paris in its newly opened gallery.

An oil on canvas by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) estimated at €4m-6m is billed as a highlight of the sale of Old Master and 19th century art to be held by Artcurial in Paris in November.

Paintings by the prominent 20th century Czech artist Jan Zrzavy (1890-1977) were among the highlights during a recent sales series in the French Riviera.

Discovered in a cupboard in a house in the Cévennes wrapped in newspaper dated 1937 were two albums containing a series of Japanese prints by Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), one of the most sought-after Japanese woodblock print artists.

Tajan is holding a sale of Modern and Contemporary Ceramics in Paris on September 19 timed to be on view during Paris Design Week which runs from September 7-16.

Gustave Alaux (1887-1965) was a French marine artist with a particular interest in historical naval scenes and vessels, often depicted in exotic settings such as the French colonies. He was appointed official painter to the navy in 1926.

The Parcours de la Céramique et des Arts du Feu is an annual gallery-based event in Paris focusing on a broad range of ceramics and glass, both antique and modern, from Europe and Asia

From late 1940 to early 1941 André Breton and a group of other Surrealists including Wifredo Lam, Max Ernst, Oscar Dominguez, Victor Brauner, André Masson and Frédéric Delanglade re-located to Marseille where they anxiously awaited visas to escape occupied France.

Famous Frenchman has amassed an impressive wide-ranging array of acquisitions over six decades