International

Artcurial’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) auction focus on Charlotte Perriand, the celebrated 20th century French designer and a current hot ticket in the design market, took the form of a select sale of just 20 lots chosen to showcase her strengths and versatility.

Masters of Design are very much in the spotlight in Paris at the moment. A week after Artcurial’s Charlotte Perriand sortie on October 31, Sotheby’s Paris (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) was mounting its traditional autumn sale devoted to major works from the Art Nouveau, Art Deco, post-war and modern design periods.

Published by Ackermann in 1819 in its ‘Repository of the Arts’ journal, Four & Twenty Hobby-Horses All of a Row is an amusing coloured aquatint, accompanied by verses (by one L Harrison) that begin “Hobby’s the word, and onward sliding, All London Town is set a-riding:”.

Among recent highlights at the Drouot in Paris, Beaussant- Lefèvre’s (21.53% buyer’s premium inc VAT) classic sale of Old Masters, furniture and works of art on October 18 produced a substantial €265,000 (£240,910) for a modestly estimated bronze of the goddess Diana.

TEFAF Maastricht has added ‘TEFAF Tribal’ as a new category to its 2018 edition in a move that points to the ongoing strength of the tribal art market.

The Louvre museum in Paris is hoping to raise more than £8m to buy a jewel-encrusted Book of Hours.

Further items from the talented Yeats family are heading to auction this autumn.

A new fair in a favourite Parisian location opens this month. Devoted to drawings, paintings and sculpture from the 16th century to today, Fine Arts Paris (FAP) will be staged from November 8-12 in the Palais Brongniart on the Place de la Bourse.

A dispute over two 4th century BC Grecian vases offered at Frieze Masters in London by a Swiss dealer is the latest case highlighting the complexity of the ownership of antiquities.

A good-conduct guide for princes and rulers that focuses on the government of self, the family and the civil authorities proved particularly topical at a New York auction on October 17.

Science, fantasy and horror was the principal theme of a PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) sale of October 5, though there were also books to appeal to broader literary tastes.

Paris Photo also serves as an opportunity for Paris auction houses to mount their own photo fest. Sales taking place during early November to coincide with the event at the Grand Palais include dedicated auctions at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and various firms at Drouot. Like the fair itself, the material on offer will range from contemporary works by living photographers through to pieces by some of the earliest pioneers.

While the French capital says hello to the new Fine Arts Paris fair, over in Namur in Belgium organisers are gearing up to mount the 41st staging of Antica Namur.

Paris, like London, is in full fair swing in the autumn. Once Frieze closed in the UK capital, contemporary art galleries move across the Channel to the French capital for FIAC.