North America

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.

Neal Auction Company of New Orleans have now returned to the city after ten days away under mandatory hurricane evacuation orders and the loss of electrical services.

A retired Massachusetts lawyer has been found guilty of involvement in a major art theft that extends back three decades.

Atlanta-based WorthPoint, an online database and social network for antiques and collectibles, have announced its intent to acquire GoAntiques, the online buying and selling network.

A DIARY kept by a sailor in Nelson’s navy was offered for sale in a US auction earlier this month. Given that diaries kept by ordinary sailors are exceptionally rare, there was huge interest in this visually striking document from both sides of the Atlantic with institutions, the trade and private collectors vying for the journal.

Phillips de Pury are holding the first ever auction of hip hop jewellery on October 1 in New York. The sale, titled Hip Hop's Crown Jewels will offer some serious bling worn by some of the music movement's biggest stars.

East Coast auctioneer Skinner are to move their suburban headquarters from Bolton to Marlborough, Massachusetts.

Tiffany & Co have appealed over the ruling that eBay do not have to police their auction site for fakes before they are sold to unwitting buyers.

The FBI are attempting to track down the rightful owners of 137 works of art, discovered in a New York apartment, which are thought to have been stolen in the 1960s and 70s.

Ebay have won a landmark judgment in the US federal courts, which effectively protects their position as an independent trading platform.