France

Besch holds its traditional winter sale series from December 27-31 at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes. Wines, champagne and spirits; Impressionist and Modern art; designer watches, pens, jewellery and coins all feature.

A pair of Castelli maiolica plaques will feature in Artcurial’s mixed-discipline sale of furniture and works of art in Paris on December 16-17.

Plenty of opportunities were available to purchase Old Master or 19th century works for more affordable prices across Paris last month. Pictured here are three works from recent auctions.

Old Masters are much to the fore in the calendar across Europe at this time in the auction season.

The Bordoni and the Luini were not the only strong results achieved in the Drouot auction centre in the November sales.

The Château de Pontchartrain and the Phélypeaux family who lived there for almost two centuries was much in evidence as a provenance in the recent sales in Paris.

Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting 'Lucretia', which was in a private collection for more than 40 years, has made a new record for the artist at an auction in Paris.

While the binding, with Charles Ricketts’ familiar gilt design on the front cover, is not in the best of conditions, an inscription on the half-title of this example of one of the 250 large paper copies of Oscar Wilde’s 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' published by Ward Lock in 1891 ensured that it set an auction record.

Among several auctions devoted to Old Master and 19th century paintings taking place in Paris this month will be the 66-lot sale held at Sotheby’s on November 19.

The Carrousel du Louvre will be the setting for the 'Fine Arts Paris' fair which opens to the public next week with a five-day run from November 13-17.