Frieze cancelled but will run online
Frieze London and Frieze Masters fairs have been cancelled this year due to the ongoing issues relating to the coronavirus, including complications around travel quarantine and continued restrictions.
The events in Regent’s Park, London, had been scheduled for October 2020 and instead will be held next in 2021.
This year, Frieze will stage an online version of the fair with a Frieze viewing room scheduled for October 8-11, the original dates of the event. Organisers staged the first Frieze viewing room in May for the New York fair when that event was also cancelled.
Eye of the Collector fair moves to 2021
The inaugural Eye of the Collector fair in London has been postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus.
The organiser, Nazy Vassegh, originally delayed the event back from May until September this year and had held an online viewing room on May 12-31. Now the event has been moved until next year and Vassegh, who previously ran Masterpiece London, will organise a series of online editions of Eye of the Collector comprising viewing rooms and digital events until the physical fair next year.
Coinex postponed until next year
The Coinex fair, set to run in September, has also been postponed until next year.
The event runs in Mayfair’s Millennium Hotel and usually hosts around 100 organisations from the British Numismatic Trade Association and beyond.
Coinex organisers said the next event is planned for September 2021. However, it is currently considering holding a smaller, one-day event ahead of this date and will make an announcement in due course.
Marketing chief leaves Christie’s
Christie’s global chief marketing officer Amy Wexler is to leave on September 1 after two decades at the auction house.
Amy Wexler is leaving Christie’s.
Wexler took over the CMO role in 2018 from Marc Sands, who joined as chief marketing officer in April 2014. He later joined Bonhams. When Wexler was promoted in 2018, colleague Matthew Rubinger became deputy chief marketing officer. The new marketing structure has yet to be finalised.
Bonhams boosts German team
Bonhams has appointed Eva Lengler as the company’s representative for the northern part of Germany, based in Düsseldorf.
Eva Lengler of Bonhams.
Charity auctions support the NHS
Auction houses did their bit for charity during lockdown – regional UK salerooms (mainly for NHS related causes) raised at least £355,597 during the period. According to figures compiled by ATG, among the top fundraisers were Omega Auctions, which held a charity music auction in association with Island Records and raised £181,755. Singer Billy Porter was the auctioneer of The One Love sale. No buyer’s premium or vendor charges were made so 100% of the proceeds from the sales were split between NHS Charities Together Covid 19 Appeal and Feeding America. Among the highlights was a set of U2 lyrics sold for £76,000.
Other top fundraisers from the UK included Dix Noonan Webb, raising £39,815, and Cheffins which chalked up £30,610.
Separately, Dawsons is holding a drumming memorabilia charity auction on July 18 with the related drumming initiative already raised more than £30,000 ahead of the sale.
Lights, camera, auction action
German saleroom Auktionshaus Lankes has come up with an innovative solution to hold a live sale at a time when Covid-19 restrictions in Bavaria are still stringent: a drive-in cinema experience.
Just 10 spots at individual tables can be booked in the auction room for the summer sale in Döhlau but thanks to a 6 x 3m LED screen set up in the adjacent Lankes car park 50 spaces are on offer, where bidders can take part in the auction in or on their vehicle. Bidders will be equipped with special buzzers to indicate bids.
The auction, to be run by the toys specialist from July 21-25, is held also via Lot-tissimo for online bidding.
British Airways puts art up for sale
Seventeen works from the collection of British Airways will be offered across two Sotheby’s auctions in London this month as the airline seeks to raise cash after its business was badly hit by the coronavirus.
This selection of paintings, prints and works on paper by artists such as Bridget Riley, Patrick Heron, Terry Frost and Marc Quinn is expected to raise around £1.5m in total.
The chief lot in the consignment is Riley’s Cool Edge, a trademark stripe painting from 1982 which had previously hung in a members’ lounge at Heathrow Terminal 5.
'Cool Edge' by Bridget Riley – estimate £800,000-1.2m at Sotheby’s on July 28.
The relatively large 4ft 8in x 4ft (1.42 x 1.21m) oil on linen was part of the artist’s ‘Egyptian Series’ for which she adopted a palette derived from those used in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings. It has an £800,000- 1.2m estimate at the Rembrandt to Richter evening auction on July 28.
Most read
The most viewed stories for week July 8-15 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 Rare Antonio Susini sculpture found in £12 box of bric-a-brac to be auctioned in Christie’s Classic Week series
2 Estimate €5000, sold for €6.4m: Lost folios of Chinese encyclopedia surface in Paris
3 Chinese elephants with Rothschild provenance star in our weekly pick of five auction highlights
4 Works of art with aristocratic connections feature at Christie’s new The Collector sale
5 Rare Spanish Armada maps blocked from export in the hope a UK buyer can pay £600,000 to save them for the nation
In Numbers
80,000
The number of people that Christie’s reported had watched the ‘One’ sale online, with 60,000 of those accessing the auction through social media in Asia.
