US

Of all the western mining states, Arizona conceivably had the largest number of land scams. Companies with no intention of mining were set up only to collect money from investors. Arizona was an ideal place for scams, because it lacked a major transportation system and was subject to attack by neighbouring Apache tribes, so investors were less likely to visit their investments.

A WEEK ago it was announced that Oxfordshire dealer Edward Reilly-Collins of Hallidays was negotiating a deal to launch a new fair in Chicago with the US-based Stella Show Management.

Former Sotheby’s chief executive Diana ‘Dede’ Brooks was sentenced to six months ‘home detention’ last Monday after pleading guilty to fixing commissions for vendors with Christie’s between 1993 and 1999.

THE strength of the Irish picture market will be tested in May when Sotheby’s and Christie’s hold their annual Irish sales in London. Recent sales in Ireland indicate things look promising, and that interest is still strong Stateside was confirmed at Dennis Auction Service (10% buyer’s premium) in Stewartsville, New Jersey on March 9 sale when this early work, right, by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) came up for auction.

OFFERED as part of a March 28 sale held by Pacific Book Auctions was a set of six porcelain plaques painted by John Tenniel with characters from Alice in Wonderland.

...in Massachusetts: START your engines… there’s just time to race over to America for a chance to own one of the smartest little sports cars around.

USA: New York may boast the nation’s glitziest antiques fairs in terms of snaring top-tier collectors and socialites, but The 41st Philadelphia Antiques Show tops virtually every single fair when it comes to choice Americana and folk art. Even dealers who participate in New York’s Winter Antiques Show praise the Pennsylvania event. “It’s the best show for Americana,” says Edwin Hild of Olde Hope Antiques based in nearby Bucks County.

USA: A new prestige antiques fair at Chicago’s Navy Pier next spring is just one of a series of new initiatives from one of the US Antique trade’s most energetic and dynamic figures, Leslie Hindman.

NEW YORK: They say that sex sells, but it would be wrong to assume this was the only attraction of this 18th century Indian illustration to the Gita Govinda, Krishna and Radha Make Love, 1775-1780, 101/8in by 61/8in (25.7cm x15.6cm).

Florida-based Dolphin Promotions launch Great Lakes Modernism at the Southfield Civic Center in suburban Detroit, Michigan, from October 18 to 20.

Japanese and Korean sales: Although only Christie’s held a Japanese and Korean auction, trade and private buyers still came to New York to bid at auction and buy Japanese and Korean works of art at the fairs and from dealers’ exhibitions.

There were auction highs and lows during New York’s March Asia week that saw Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) and Christie’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) hosting eight sales in four days, from March 19-22.

On May 17-18, Sotheby’s New York rooms are mounting a sale entitled By Design which features furnishings that have either been designed or selected for decorative schemes by leading interior designers.

Phillips have released details of a bumper sale of Contemporary art to be held in New York on May 13. The announcement came as art trade rumours persist about the reasons for the auction house postponing their May 6 sale of Impressionist and Modern art until June at the earliest.

SOTHEBY’S former chairman, A. Alfred Taubman, convicted in December of conspiring with rival auction house Christie’s to fix fees charged to sellers, must now wait until April 22 for sentencing.

A GROUP of investors has taken control of both Pittsburgh’s Dargate Auction Gallery and ewolfs, the troubled Cleveland-based dotcom enterprise.

With less than a month until the crunch series of Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York, it is still not clear whether Phillips will be joining Sotheby’s and Christie’s at sales which netted the company $124m last year.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s may not have had a vintage New York Asian Art series this March, but private and trade buyers continued to compete for the best quality fresh-to-the-market entries.

SHORT of George Washington’s ‘cherry tree’ axe (or, possibly, his cherrywood teeth) this set of binoculars is probably the most poignant of US Presidential personal possessions.

USA: AUCTIONEERS Skinner Inc. are bidding to capture a larger slice of the top end of the market by moving their flagship American Furniture and Decorative Arts department out of the small town of Bolton and into Boston.