International

Christie's Paris and Pierre Bergé & Associés have teamed up for their first joint sale since the record-breaking Collection Yves Saint Laurent – Pierre Bergé sale in 2009.

Joseph Chait, 38, of the IM Chait gallery and auction house in Beverly Hills, has been sentenced to one year and one day in prison after admitting he conspired to smuggle items of rhino horn, ivory and coral.

South African auction house Strauss & Co have made a number of appointments to its board in the wake of the death of founding managing director, Stephan Welz at the end of last year.

More than 25,160 visitors attended the 44th annual Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia which concluded its seven day run yesterday.

The rising tide of regulation against ivory, and the consequent threat to the trade in antiques, was a principal subject of debate at last month’s CINOA conference in Paris.

This late medieval repoussé medal depicting ‘The Emperor Heraclius’s Return of the True Cross to Jerusalem’ proved the highlight of the Sir Timothy Clifford collection of Renaissance and Baroque medals sold by Morton & Eden in London.

Crowning the white-glove success of Japanese works from the Portier collection in Paris was the sale of this signature portrait print by Kitagawa Utamaro for €600,000 (£500,000).

A dispute has erupted between fair organisers in Florida over a new event being launched in Palm Beach next January.

Calls for greater transparency in the way German institutions deal with Nazi-looted art should be extended to the country’s art and antiques trade, the Commission for Looted Art in Europe has said.

Three Irish paintings that were previously stolen from their former owner's home are on the market this September.

Art and antiques industry figures are urging “cool heads and steady hands” in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, while stressing the UK’s continued prominence in the global art market.

Two finely carved marble figures of mourners from the tomb of Jean de France, the duc de Berry (1340-1416) brother of King Charles V of France were secured by the Louvre for €4.4m (£3.67m) at Christie’s Paris last week.

The ‘final rule’ of the US law on African elephant ivory, due to come into force on July 6, puts state and federal laws in contradiction, says a leading specialist.

The ‘final rule’ of the US law on African elephant ivory is due to come into force on July 6. Here ATG’s lists the key points of the legislation including where exemptions apply.

An 1885 Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) oil, ‘hidden in plain sight’ for decades, carries an estimate of $800,000-$1.2m at Litchfield County Auctions’ June 29-30 sale in the US.

Sotheby’s have hired real estate investment company Eastdil Secured to market their flagship auction headquarters in Manhattan.

Kraemer Gallery and Didier Aaron & Cie, the two leading members of the Paris trade embroiled in a faking scandal, are expected to be excluded from the forthcoming Biennale des Antiquaires, a source close to the French trade has told ATG.

TEFAF have said they still will maintain an annual art market report despite losing the services of Dr Clare McAndrew who is joining up with Art Basel.

A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles heard the opening salvos in a legal challenge to California’s uncompromising law that bans the sale of practically all ivory objects – including those fashioned from narwhal and walrus tusks and sperm whale teeth.

Dealers from the UK will hold more stands than those from any other country at the inaugural TEFAF New York fair this autumn.