Europe

One of the attractions of the March 24-26 sale at Siebers in Stuttgart is a collection of 18 paintings by 19th century Polish artists who primarily belonged to the Munich school. The works were the property of a family of textile merchants, who moved from south Germany to Lodz, south west of Warsaw, in the 1930s.

In June 1925, only six months before his death, the Swiss painter Felix Vallotton and his wife visited the Périgord for the first time, which he declared to be “the most beautiful countryside on earth”.

Among the works of art on sale at Hampel in Munich on March 25-26 is a so-called Pendule au Manège from the early 19th century.

Hugo de Groot, also known as Hugo Grotius, was a Dutch philosopher, political theorist and theologian. His publication 'On the Law of War and Peace' in 1625 earned him the status as the ‘father of international law’.

Marie Louise Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842) was one of the most prolific painters of her era, creating up to 1000 works of art, the majority of them portraits.

Among the surprises at a Contemporary art sale at Ketterer (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich was the result for a work by the painter-poet Henri Michaux.

The Madoura pottery founded by Suzanne and Georges Ramié in Vallauris, a village in the south of France renowned for pottery production, was a popular place for many artists in the post-war years. From 1948-55 Pablo Picasso lived in Vallauris and divided his time between painting and creating ceramics at Madoura.

Legendary yarn explains how this material became a key component of the artist’s designs

The American artist Donald Judd (1928-94) abandoned painting in the 1960s and devoted himself to producing three-dimensional objects.

It is well known that the death of an artist often leads to an upsurge of market interest and that has certainly happened with the Bulgarian Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, who died last year.

A painting by Pierre Soulages (b.1919) sold at Caen Enchères (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Normandy featured a particularly notable provenance.

As the pandemic continues to upend the art market calendar, two heavyweights of the Contemporary art and design fair scene are going digital.

On March 30 Christie’s France is offering a selection of around 70 Modern and Post-war works from an unnamed Parisian collector that have been assembled over four decades.

New proposals by the European Commission to prevent the commercial export and import of most antiques containing ivory have been described by The British Antique Dealers Association (BADA) as “hugely damaging and disproportionate”.

The auction firm Peschetau-Badin (22.5% buyer’s premium) is known for holding dedicated ceramics sales and offered a two-day auction of European ceramics.

Sold for a record €260,000 (£234,235) in Hamburg was a copy of Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer’s Speculum nauticum super navigatione maris occidentalis…

The Gros & Delettrez (30% buyer’s premium) auction of Art Deco held in Paris on January 22 offered works from the collection of a gallery owner.

A sale to be held by Jack-Philippe Ruellan in Vannes in Brittany will feature this Olympic torch from the 10th Winter Olympics held in Grenoble in 1968.