Europe

The specialist Old Master fair ‘Paris Tableau’ set up last year in the French capital is about to embark on its second staging.

In the face of strong opposition from the art world, the French government appeared to back down last week from a move to include works of art valued at over €50,000 in annual assessments for wealth tax.

Rare early paintings often come to major centres such as London, Paris and New York but later this month it will be the turn of Marseille in the South of France where the Maison de Ventes Leclere will offer a chance to purchase a fragment of an Italian primitive from the early Renaissance.

Malcolm Hay, the dealer controversially convicted by an Athens court of trading in illegally excavated antiquities, has learnt that the hearing of the appeal he lodged in March 2011 has been delayed until February 1, 2013 owing to disruption caused by strikes in Greece.

The appearance of a Modernist carpet at a sale in Germany next month writes a further chapter in the tale of two rugs, signed ‘Francis Bacon’, that have been withdrawn from sale in the UK twice in three years.

The franchise agreement under which Bloomsbury Auctions Italia has operated in Rome since September 2011 has ceased.

In what has been described as “the largest single transaction to ever occur in the field of decorative arts”, California Bay Area auctioneers Michaan’s have purchased, for sale, an unparalleled collection of Tiffany and other Art Nouveau works of art.

Irish auctioneers Mealy’s have a 36-year history of collaborating with Christie’s to sell major collections and, although the crème de la crème may have been offered in London in May, their recent sale of the treasures at Mount Congreve, Co Waterford was far from a matter of crumbs from a rich man’s table.

A Prussian ducat from 1803 is considered one of the greatest rarities among 19th century German coins.

A 22in (57cm) long laminated wooden ‘Leaf Dish’ designed by the Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala (1915-85), estimated at €1200-1500, turned out to be the top lot of the summer Design sale held by Munich’s Quittenbaum.

A marble relief, executed by the Italian Symbolist Adolfo Wildt (1868-1931), turned out to be the high point at an auction held this summer by Geble in Germany.

Parisian auctioneer Claude Aguttes has been banned from holding sales for two months following an investigation into the sale of a Russian painting at the Hôtel Drouot in October 2007.

This summer’s ‘Temps Fort’ sales in the French capital have thrown up an usually strong contingent of sculpture.

Soon after the gallery doors close at the BRUNEAF fair in Brussels on June 10 all eyes turn to Paris where Christie’s and Sotheby’s will hold major African and Oceanic sales on succeeding days.

ATG Media, parent company of Antiques Trade Gazette has been named as one of the Top 100 companies in Europe in the Red Herring Awards, which celebrate innovation and technology in business.

WORKERS restoring an 18th century house in St Petersburg have unearthed an extraordinary cache of Tsarist-era artefacts once owned by one of Russia’s most prominent noble families.

IT may sound a little gimmicky, but one of the most captivating TEFAF exhibits this year was an animated version of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder’s Vase With Flowers in a Window by the contemporary artists Rob and Nick Carter on the stand of London’s Fine Art Society.

TOTAL auction sales in France rose by 8.6 per cent in 2011 to €2.38bn. Art, antiques and other collectors' sales accounted for just over half that figure at €1.25bn, a record total that surpassed the boom years of 2006 and 2007, as well as 2009 when the Yves St Laurent sale at Christie's in Paris gave a huge boost in what was otherwise a lacklustre year.

THE incomparable TEFAF Maastricht opened to the usual streams of visitors at the Maastricht Exhibition and Congress Centre but, unusually for the Dutch fair, an early big ticket sale came for a British picture.