News

EIRE: ONE of a number of remarkable prices achieved at James Adam & Bonhams' Irish Art sale on December 8 was the record IR£50,000 (£41,665) given for Harry Kernoff's 1936 oil of a Dublin cab.

UK: ANTIQUES and works of art for sale will not have to carry price tags under the terms of the EU Price Marking Order which will come into effect on March 18, 2000.

US: SETTING a new world auction record for a decoy, this sleeping Canada Goose c.1917, by renowned carver Elmer Crowell of East Harwich, Massachusetts, was estimated at $400,000-500,000 by Sotheby's, New York in a joint sale with Guyette and Schmidt of Maine, but sold to Boston dealer Stephen B. O'Brien Jr in the room on behalf of a client at $620,000 (£375,760) plus premium on January 23.

UK: THE north Indian Agra carpet that topped Christie's South Kensington's two-day sale of the contents of Le Bois Muralt on January 18–19 at £66,000.

UK: Christie's South Kensington chalked up their highest ever London sale total last week when they raised £2.25m net for the contents of a Swiss summer residence, Le Bois Muralt, on January 18-19.

UK: THE KENT County Council Bill, which seeks to impose rigorous controls on all trade in secondhand goods in the county, passed its third reading in the House of Lords on January 18, despite substantial opposition, both inside and outside the House.

UK: ART importer and exporter Ron Tabor says he believes the Trade has nothing to fear from Customs over the recent closure of the VAT loophole on re-imported works of art which appears to threaten those who inadvertently bring back works of art which have been recently exported from the UK.