Italy

Italy, like many European countries whose economies were ravaged during the war, had to face the challenge of picking itself up and starting afresh once hostilities were over.

An art dealership that sold a portrait of Napoleon’s brother-in-law to The Frick Collection in New York has strongly criticised Italy’s decision to retrospectively rescind its export licence.

The owner of a rediscovered painting attributed to Giotto has lost a High Court battle over its export from the EU.

This Allegory of Spring by the 17th century Italian artist Pietro Liberi (Padua 1605-Venice 1687) is one of the works in the May 21 auction of Old Master paintings and furnishings that opens Babuino’s next auction series in Rome.

Paris was an important destination for artists in the 19th and 20th centuries and the city gathered in creatives from all across Europe.

One highlight of a February 20 sale held in Italy was the handsome, armorially bound 1694 first edition of the Swiss born architect Carlo Fontana’s Templum Vaticanum.

Italy has approved new laws relaxing the country’s art export regulations.

While Paris has changed its 'Biennale' to run every year, the equally venerable Florence 'Biennale', (the 'Biennale Internationale dell Antiquariato di Firenze – BIAF') retains a traditional format running in alternate years.

Among the London art dealers who are off to Florence for the 30th edition of the city’s Biennale this month is Colnaghi. ATG canvassed the opinion of the firm’s CEO, Jorge Coll.

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.

Milan’s Navigli district dates to the 12th century and nine centuries later it is full of vintage shops, restaurants and bars, with its canals a great backdrop for the city’s biggest antiques and vintage market.

A 1610 first of Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius, a foundation work in modern astronomy, sold for €320,000 (£278,400) on June 15 at Minerva Auctions (25/18% buyer’s premium) of Rome.

The ancient Romans believed that no matter what happened in the world or how many empires came and collapsed, Rome would live forever. Hence its description by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC as the Eternal City.

The jewellery sale at Il Ponte in Milan on May 17-18 will include items with provenance to a number of Italian aristocratic families.