Europe

Something of a photographic sensation has suddenly struck the German speaking auction world with a new record price for a 35mm camera seen at WestLicht Photographica Auction (25% buyer’s premium) in Vienna on May 29.

THE Numismatica Ars Classica (15% buyer’s premium plus local sales tax) sale in Zurich on May 12 was no less wonderful than most of its predecessors. We have become used to prices which draw gasps from this house.

BRUSSELS have two similar events this month, both of which are festivals rather than fairs, with specialist dealers mounting concurrent selling exhibitions, promoted jointly, and also inviting overseas specialists in the same discipline to show as guests in the Brussels galleries.

MAY is traditionally when the Swiss wheel out their most spectacular sales of Classical coins. This year’s offering (981 lots) came on May 10-11 at Leu (Zurich).

A POSTCARD sent by Joyce to the publisher Elkin Mathews sold for €12,000 (£8170) in a May 18 sale held by Mealy’s in Dublin.

IN Amsterdam, if you pay close attention to the silver sales, you occasionally find a British-made object tucked away beneath the massing foliage of prized Dutch cutlery and tableware. It normally sits quietly, not causing much of a stir.

THE 19th instalment of the Milano Internationale Antiquariato closed its doors on May 16 after a nine-day run at the city’s Fiera.

SPECIALISING in what the name implies, British Import Antiques, who deal out of a wooden Belle Epoque pavilion at 23, Boulevard du Parc on Ile de Jatte in Neuilly, just west of Paris, are holding two open-door weekends on June 4 to 6 and June 11-13 when they hope to dispose of more than 1000 items of stock.

ALTHOUGH April saw no headline auctions in Belgian salerooms, several firms in both Brussels and Antwerp were in action and achieved some significant prices.

MORTON and Eden continue to make great strides considering how short a time they have existed. On April 22 they held their first sale abroad – in Milan in collaboration with Sotheby’s. Indeed, that firm is descended from the now closed Sotheby’s coin department.

FRANCE'S national auction watchdog, the Conseil des Ventes, has banned the firm Rey & Associés from all auction activity, for repeatedly staging sales without adequate insurance cover.

A SET of four late-18th century Japanese gold lacquered panels caused a flurry of international interest when they came up for sale at Rossini (19.94% buyer’s premium) back on April 2.

THE Seven Works of Mercy by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, painted on a panel measuring 17 x 22in (42 x 56cm), raised €450,000 (£300,000) at the sale held by Van Ham (22% buyer’s premium) in Cologne on April 3. It had been estimated at €260,000.

ALTHOUGH they were one of three auctioneers forced to withdraw pre-Columbian works of art from sale last year over questions of provenance, Christie’s will continue to offer early South American items for auction in Paris.

A SELECT group of 22 dealers from seven countries, including a number of Maastricht veterans, will take part in Russia’s first ever international antiques fair, the Moscow World Fine Art Fair, from May 31-June 7.

Pictured right is one of two major pieces of Georg Jensen silver stolen in a raid on Denmark’s National Art Gallery in the early hours of May 2. The thieves involved got away with an estimated £70,000 worth of silver that formed part of an exhibition featuring the work of the celebrated Danish silversmith.

BUSINESS was patchy at the 8th Pavillon des Antiquaires et des Beaux Arts that ran from March 27-April 4 in the Jardin des Tuileries, featuring 80 galleries, all but seven from France. New York’s Barry Friedman, participating for the first time, headed the small foreign contingent along with Michel Soskine Inc., showing drawings by the German-born Horst Janssen (1927-95).

THE Paris expert Alain Weill makes a habit of holding sales which are rather more interesting than those of many of his colleagues. For sure they have a strong Gallic slant, but then sales in London are strongly biased towards the British series.

SPECIALIST ceramics dealers will, once again, be gathering at the historic chateau at Enghien, 20 miles south west of Brussels, this week for the fourth staging of the Salon Céramique Ancienne (Oude Keramiek).

THERE was some erratic bidding for the pictures which dominated Belgian auctions in March.