Germany

The stage was set for the 12th edition of Highlights in Munich at the beginning of July, but at short notice the local authorities prevented the event from going ahead, due to concerns about Covid.

Regulators hold their own distinct appeal for collectors who like their aesthetic and are interested in their historic horological function as precision timepieces.

Auction Team Breker is holding its first sale of the autumn season on September 24-25 in Cologne.

In terms of improvement on expectations, the most successful lot at a Ketterer Kunst (25% buyer’s premium) sales earlier this year comprised early 19th century paper-cuts.

If Marie Bashkirtseff had her way, the portrait she painted of her cousin in the late 1870s would never have survived, let alone made it to auction.

The organisers of the Bamberger Kunst-und Antiquitätenwochen (art and antiques weeks), which run until August 22, thought long and hard about whether to hold this year’s event in light of the pandemic.

An unusual feature of a large fragment of an Ushak carpet which was sold by Rippon Boswell (24% buyer’s premium) in Wiesbaden on May 29 was the alliance coat of arms of two powerful Genovese aristocratic families, the Doria and the Centurione, in the top corner.

Despite a disappointing selling rate, dealer’s collection included notable results

Nagel (25% buyer’s premium) in Stuttgart underestimated the international interest for a 16th century painting of Christ Carrying the Cross.

Over many years, Helga and Walther Lauffs collected American and European art from the 1960s-70s.

This large 19th century Meissen plaque with an allegory of summer caught the eye of numerous bidders at Metz (25% buyer’s premium).

'Doppelspindel-Rot', a monumental oil on canvas from 1967 by Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902-68), topped the latest evening sale of Modern and Contemporary art at Ketterer Kunst (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich.

The prize lot sold at a recent Hermann Historica (25% buyer’s premium) sale in Munich was this 19th century Ottoman kilij of characteristic form with a curved blade swelling towards the tip.

Stuttgart auction house Nagel called it ‘beyond doubt one of the most important gilt-bronzes to appear on the market for many years’ – and the monumental Ming dynasty Sino-Tibetan figure of the wrathful deity Vajrabhairava did not disappoint.

Determined international bidders knew exactly what they were looking for at a sale of icons and Russian works of art held by Dr Fischer (28% buyer’s premium) in Heilbronn.

For over a century, a 5ft x 6ft 4in (1.52 x 1.93m) painting of Samson and Delilah had slumbered as the work of an unknown Italian artist in a German private collection.

In 1922, Theo van Doesburg, gave a course at the Bauhaus in Weimar, devoted to the artists’ group De Stijl he had co-founded some five years before.

In the course of the 19th century, the company founded by Henrik Fredrik Jansen became one of the most important manufacturers of furniture and furnishings in Amsterdam.

Bernard De Leye has been trading in silverware since 1977 and has been a regular participant at major antiques fairs in Belgium and France for many decades.