Europe

The Austrian artist and composer Hermann Nitsch, who died earlier this year at the age of 84, had as many detractors as followers.

Since 1969, when it was sold at a gallery exhibition in Munich, one of Niki de Saint Phalle’s (1930-2002) well-known Nanas had belonged to a south German collector.

The complex and sometimes bizarre machines that the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925-91) constructed during his long career belong to the most distinctive examples of kinetic art.

Icons of English furniture returned to the market when Sotheby’s Paris sold the contents from the Hôtel Lambert, a 17th century Parisian hôtel particulier on the Ile de La Cité.

Vienna antiquarian bookseller Michael Steinbach is celebrating 50 years in the business and has produced a catalogue to mark the milestone.

The auctioneers at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) in Dusseldorf were not expecting the broad international interest eventually generated by an 18in (45cm) high Chinese porcelain vase.

Since its inception, the focus of the 'Highlights' fair on Modern and Contemporary art has increased and in recent years photography dealers have also been given more space.

A very rare form of German 17th century silver is on offer at Van Ham’s auction on November 16 in Cologne.

Maxime Mauchamp of Tsukimi Gallery in Paris which offers Japanese works of art from the 20th century to contemporary, including ceramics, metalworks and cloisonné enamel pieces

Five years after he acceded to the throne in 1873, King Albert of Saxony decided to renovate the 17th century hunting castle at Wermsdorf.

Among the eye-catchers at Wendl in Rudolstadt from October 27-29 is an example of the world’s first functioning lighter.

From the late Middle Ages onwards, an unusual form of glass bottle appeared in many parts of continental Europe.

On the first day of an auction held by Schloss Ahlden (26% buyer’s premium), a German collector with a passion for history saw off numerous dealers and collectors from home and abroad who had also trained their sights on a set of four silver candlesticks from the early 19th century.

There was obviously much more to a pair of 14 and 15in (35 and 37cm) terracotta figures offered at auction than the starting price of €240 suggested.

A three-day auction held by Schuler (23/20/16% buyer’s premium) in Zurich achieved numerous notable results.

The private collector who consigned a painting he had bought at Sotheby’s in London in 2013 to Koller (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) in Zurich for the auction on September 23 will have been most agreeably surprised by the result.

Titled 'De Watteau à Vuillard Une Collection Parisienne', paintings, works on paper, furniture and objects from a Parisian collection were the object of the first of two single-owner classic contents sales marking the start of the new auction season for the Old Master, furniture and objects departments at Artcurial (26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium).

An early 17th century gouache by the German artist Johann König (1586-1642) was a highlight of the Ivoire Troyes (24% buyer’s premium) auction.

Gustave le Gray is well known today as a pioneering French photographer but not as a painter.

Giquello et Associés is selling this fossilised skeleton of Zephyr from the Iduanodon family of dinosaurs which is more than 150 million years old.