US

A former long-term employee of New England auctioneers Skinner has been indicted by a grand jury for allegedly stealing over $724,000 worth of cash and auctioned property.

A retired Massachusetts lawyer found guilty of involvement in a major art theft that extends back three decades has been sentenced to seven years in a Federal prison.

LONDON-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have cancelled the International Asian Art Fair scheduled for March 11 to 15 at New York's Park Avenue Armory – the first major fairs casualty of the world economic turmoil.

DMG, one of the world’s biggest antiques fair organisers, have sold another show from their American portfolio.

BONHAMS & Butterfields saw a strong price for a Korean ceramic in their Asian works of art sale in San Francisco on December 9.

This monumental 19th century Russian gilt-bronze mounted porcelain vase, created by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St Petersburg, is thought to have been included in the wedding dowry of a daughter of Tsar Nicholas I.

FOUND hanging in a Boston bathroom, the whereabouts of this Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) illustration had been a mystery for more than 80 years. Entitled The Climax, and hanging in the lavatory alongside another Beardsley pen-and-ink drawing called A Platonic Lament, the owners had no idea of its significance.

FLORIDA-based art fair entrepreneur David Lester is proposing a radical new relationship between exhibitor and fair organiser in response to the global economic turmoil.

THE latest series of contemporary art auctions in New York showed how much the market has fallen since its peak. With sale totals down well over 50 per cent from last year’s autumn series held at the height of the boom, the extent of the damage caused by the current economic distress and diminished confidence amongst buyers was manifest. The question now is will prices stabilise or fall further?

COMING just hours after the election of Barack Obama in the US, a poster of the new President-elect sold at Bonhams & Butterfields in California for a double-estimate $4800 (£3145).

AS millions of Americans celebrated the victory of Barack Obama, Christie's announced that they will be offering an important memento from another historic Presidential election which brought a sense of hope to the country.

Following the sometimes painful results of last week's Impressionist and Modern art sales in New York, there can now be little doubt that the worldwide financial distress is undermining demand for trophy paintings and sculpture. All sales missed their low estimates by some margin.

Caskey-Lees' 18th staging of Arts of Pacific Asia next year has to leave its traditional venue, the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue.

Atlantique City is giving up its autumn slot in New Jersey and reverting to an annual spring show. Dealers and shoppers were told of the change at the October 18-19 fair.

EBAY are to ban the sale of ivory products on its USA site from January.

An American collector has filed two lawsuits against Sotheby's, alleging they concealed a financial interest in and inflated the price for an Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom that he bought in May for almost $10m.

Reports of the vast sums of money lost by some Russian oligarchs in the recent financial crisis did not appear to hamper enthusiasm for a collection of Russian cloisonné sold at Freeman’s in Philadelphia on October 8.

BOOKS being used in their physical form alone to disguise an entirely different function are nothing new – money boxes are a perennial favourite – but the book as Thunderbox?

Two major antiques fairs in Texas were cancelled as a result of Hurricane Ike.

Phillips de Pury’s Hip Hop Crown Jewels auction scheduled for October 1 in New York has been postponed until March 5, 2009.