Organisations

LAST year’s BADA Antiques and Fine Art Fair was by consensus considered not just the best looking of the association’s ventures so far but it was also, by quite a distance, the most profitable to date for the exhibitors.

THREE men have been charged with joining together to drive up prices for items they were selling on Internet auctions on EBay. The charges include one linked to a sale in which a Dutch user bid $135,000 for a fake Richard Diebenkorn painting.

US: JUST as it was with the Morris bird books featured in last week’s Antiquarian Books pages (see issue no. 1481), we are looking here at a very familiar set of books in an unfamiliar context.

ICOLLECTOR seem to be on a roll with their new eBay deal. After a good start, they have put in another creditable performance, this time at the recent Dargate Galleries sale of general antiques and collectables, reported in detail below.

CRITICISM of this column that it deals with auction results as opposed to private treaty deals is perhaps justified. The difficulty is that one is not privy to private treaty details and nor should we be.

UK: The National Arts Collection Fund has announced that it is to oversee the bequest of 250 works from the studio of the visionary painter Cecil Collins (1908-89) to about 50 galleries and museums across the country.

WITH no pre-sale marketing other than a two-day notice on their own Website, ICollector’s first online sale with EBay saw the service get off to a good start.

A LAWSUIT that threatened to deal a fatal blow to the heart of EBay’s trading status has been dismissed by a Californian court

A WEEK after ICollector announced a major online bidding deal with EBay, TIAS, the Houston-based Web mall claiming the largest “fixed price” source of antiques and collectables on the Internet, have withdrawn from a similar arrangement.

EBay are to provide the technology for customers to bid live online at sales held by hundreds of auction houses whose catalogues can be scanned on ICollector’s Website.

THE British Art Market Federation has expressed disappointment as the European Parliament is seeking to reverse special provisions for the UK concerning droit de suite, the artists’ resale levy.

FRANCE: A Paris court has granted a temporary injunction placing a Cézanne painting currently on show at a city museum under legal supervision pending an inquiry into its ownership.

ANTHONY Browne, chairman of the British Art Federation, has just led a delegation of art dealers to Strasbourg to lobby the European Parliament further on the artists’ resale levy, droit de suite.

SIX claimants have refiled a case against online sales giant EBay that, if successful, could deal a fatal blow to the company’s global status and have huge implications for Internet sales worldwide.

UK: ART & Antiques on the Internet is the title of a one-day conference being staged at the Royal Institution on Thursday October 26 by the Institute of Art and Law and the RICS

UK: THE Saatchi Gallery is to distribute 39 works of Contemporary Art by British artists among seven regional galleries and museums.

THE German Society of Art Auctioneers is to consider acting as an Internet portal for its members, so that they can all make a “joint appearance” together.

UK: THE Internet has failed to generate any significant volume of sales for London’s art dealers in the past year, reports the members’ survey for 1999/2000 by the Society of London Art Dealers.

Following the decision earlier this year to reform the structure of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and to merge with the ISVA, the RICS will split into 16 faculties from the beginning of 2001.

UK: LEADING representatives of the trade have given evidence before the Culture Select Committee which is considering whether Britain should introduce new laws to tackle art theft and trade in illegally exported antiques.