International

Dmg World Media are bringing together their extensive American art and antiques fairs network under a new management division based in San Francisco called Art & Antiques Fairs, North America.

SOTHEBY’S and Christie’s have launched an unprecedented attack on France’s auction laws in a bid to halt Paris’s decades-long decline as a market force.

Bonhams have announced the location of two major new salerooms – in Edinburgh and New York.

Adams of Dublin were once again top of the Irish rooms posting a €19.4m (£14.6m) hammer turnover for 2007.

For the first time, a trio of auction firms pulled clear of the field in Paris in 2007.

London-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have changed the dates and venue of their 13th annual International Asian Art Fair in New York.

The last privately owned copy of Magna Carta will remain in the USA after its $19m (£9.8m) purchase by billionaire David Rubenstein.

THE new year will see a new auction house open in India – with a wide remit to develop the domestic and international markets.

BUSINESS from China increased fivefold for the Fine Arts Society in 2007, helping to bring the company the highest turnover in their 131-year history.

There is nothing quite like dying young for genius to acquire immortality. An object lesson in this came with the predictably frantic bidding from the four corners of the world at the sale of some effects once belonging to Maria Callas. The total of €1.3m (£900,000) trebled expectations.

Christie’s held the first auction of spirits in New York since Prohibition on December 8.

It is only 3.25in (8cm) high, but it made more than any sculpture or antiquity ever offered at auction.

Stella Show Management have said that Antiques at the Armory, the January 18-20 antiques show at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, will go ahead as planned.

Lawrence B. Salander, the embattled Manhattan art dealer, has filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy protection citing debts of between $50m and $100m.

Auction houses and antiques malls in the United States are reporting a surge in overseas buying on the internet thanks to the weak dollar.

When the last of the 823 lots in the sale of the contents Ariane Dandois’ Gallery on the Faubourg St Honoré in Paris was hammered down by Sotheby’s on October 26, it provided a $32.2m (£16.9m) grand finale to a month of sales devoted to traditional areas of the decorative arts in New York.

Leading Florida auction business Arthur James Galleries of Delray Beach is for sale.

DATE changes for Arts of Pacific Asia at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue mean the event effectively launches the 2008 New York Spring Asia Week.

A private San Francisco bank has emerged as one of the largest creditors of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries.

Sotheby’s have posted their highest price in Paris since the French auction market was opened to foreign firms in 2001.