International

Christie’s successfully completed their first auction in mainland China on September 26.

Sotheby’s have announced that they are to offer a flawless 59.6-carat pink diamond for sale in Geneva on November 13 with a record asking price of $60m.

In what they are describing as a first for a global auction house, Spink are taking the significant step of locating their boss in Hong Kong.

Among the highlights of the New York Asia Week series of sales at Doyle New York was this Qianlong white jade phoenix ewer.

Liz Lees and Meg Wendy, both veteran art and antiques show producers, have formed a partnership to co-produce the New York Ceramics Fair.

The London Borough of Croydon has chosen Christie’s as the auctioneers for its controversial sale of 24 Chinese works of art from its collection.

The US Fish & Wildlife Service has brought a series of prosecutions as part of Operation Crash, a nationwide crackdown on cross-border trafficking in rhinoceros horn works of art.

A remarkable archive of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s personal property makes its second visit to the auction room in less than a decade this month when it is offered by Heritage Auctions in New York.

Christie’s, the first international auction house to be granted a licence to operate independently in mainland China, have announced the date of their first auction.

Demonstrating the benefits that provincial auctioneers continue to derive from the growth in demand for Modern British art, a number of this summer’s sale highlights in the regions were supplied by 20th century pictures.

Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas, are claiming a new auction record for an insert movie poster.

Several of the main French auction firms and French branches of international houses have produced their half-year sales figures.

For the second time in a decade, on August 10, Heritage in Dallas will offer for sale the prototype of the original GI Joe figure.

An exceptional piece of 17th century Japanese export lacquer with a provenance to match has produced the highest auction price in France this year when it was sold to the Rijksmuseum for a hammer price of €5.9m (£5.26m).

David Gonzalez, a builder and decorator in Hoffman, Minnesota, bought a small house on his own account for $10,100 and set to work on fixing it up for re-sale. Then he took down one of the walls and revealed a hidden treasure.

UK dealers and auction houses have been alerted to the theft of six oil paintings by Evie Hone from a church in Ireland.

A new decree under French law has banned the mailing of banknotes, coins, jewellery and precious metals using the standard French postal system.

The price of gold has continued to drop, falling to its lowest level in almost three years, after the US Federal Reserve said it will be winding down its quantitative easing programme.

Fred Williams’ ‘You Yangs Landscape 1’ of 1963 made the highest price of the 89-lot sale of Australian art from the Reg Grundy and Joy Chambers-Grundy collection when it sold for Aus$1.9m (£1.2m).

A sickle-leaf carpet from the William A. Clark collection has set a new auction record for a Persian carpet after selling for $30m (£20.5m) at Sotheby’s New York.