Europe

An Abelam hornbill sculpture from Papua New Guinea is among the highlights at the Tribal Art Fair in Amsterdam.

Since 1969, when it was sold at a gallery exhibition in Munich, one of Niki de Saint Phalle’s (1930-2002) well-known Nanas had belonged to a south German collector.

The complex and sometimes bizarre machines that the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925-91) constructed during his long career belong to the most distinctive examples of kinetic art.

Among the potential highlights in Aguttes’ Contemporary Art auction in Neuilly on November 2 will be this work by Pierre Soulages (b.1919), 30 mai 1981.

The central motif of Antoni Tàpies’ (1923- 2012) Personnage assis (Variation XI) has been the subject of many discussions among art historians.

Watercolour given as thanks to his Heinz family host in 2003 now sells to a US collector.

The Austrian artist and composer Hermann Nitsch, who died earlier this year at the age of 84, had as many detractors as followers.

A third sale featuring ceramics by Jean Cocteau took place in Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr’s (27.5%/26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) Paris saleroom.

According to Munich saleroom Ketterer, the 3ft 4in (1.02m) square painting N. O. 9th . Ward, which is part of the sale on December 9, is the first work by the American artist Stanley Whitney (b.1946) ever to be offered at a German auction.

Icons of English furniture returned to the market when Sotheby’s Paris sold the contents from the Hôtel Lambert, a 17th century Parisian hôtel particulier on the Ile de La Cité.

Maxime Mauchamp of Tsukimi Gallery in Paris which offers Japanese works of art from the 20th century to contemporary, including ceramics, metalworks and cloisonné enamel pieces

Among the eye-catchers at Wendl in Rudolstadt from October 27-29 is an example of the world’s first functioning lighter.

Vienna antiquarian bookseller Michael Steinbach is celebrating 50 years in the business and has produced a catalogue to mark the milestone.

A three-day auction held by Schuler (23/20/16% buyer’s premium) in Zurich achieved numerous notable results.

On the first day of an auction held by Schloss Ahlden (26% buyer’s premium), a German collector with a passion for history saw off numerous dealers and collectors from home and abroad who had also trained their sights on a set of four silver candlesticks from the early 19th century.

The private collector who consigned a painting he had bought at Sotheby’s in London in 2013 to Koller (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) in Zurich for the auction on September 23 will have been most agreeably surprised by the result.

From the late Middle Ages onwards, an unusual form of glass bottle appeared in many parts of continental Europe.

A very rare form of German 17th century silver is on offer at Van Ham’s auction on November 16 in Cologne.

There was obviously much more to a pair of 14 and 15in (35 and 37cm) terracotta figures offered at auction than the starting price of €240 suggested.

The auctioneers at Hargesheimer (28% buyer’s premium) in Dusseldorf were not expecting the broad international interest eventually generated by an 18in (45cm) high Chinese porcelain vase.