France

A small but select sale of a collection of carpets and tapestries comes up for sale at Piasa in Paris on June 15. The 14 lots of weavings spanning the 16th to 18th centuries have a particular emphasis on Spain and the New World.

Less than six months after they announced the discovery of an unpublished Leonardo drawing, the French auction house Tajan has revealed another major artistic discovery – a pair of paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) that last appeared in the late 18th century. Both the Leonardo and the Fragonards have been declared National Treasures by the French State.

Included in Tajan’s design auction on June 1 is this striking 21st century low plexiglass table created by the Japanese architect Toyo Ito (b.1941).

The Syndicat National Des Antiquaires, organisers of the Biennale Paris, has announced the latest exhibitor list and progamme details for France’s main art and antiques fair which takes place in September.

The strikingly striated exotic timber known as palmwood was a signature material for the designer and interior decorator Eugène Printz (1889-1948). A characteristic example of the distinctive furniture he created in this medium featured in the decorative arts sale held by Tajan (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) on May 16.

Tribal, non-European or ethnographic art has experienced a huge growth in both general and financial appreciation this century. This boost is partly due to the connections made between indigenous art and its influence on modern and contemporary artists.

While most tribal art events take place in major cities, the Bourgogne Tribal Show makes the most of its rural location.

Following the publication in 1632 of his Dialogo…, Galileo found himself hauled before the Inquisition and tried for his heretical views.

Classic antiques from furniture and works of art to scientific instruments and a Roman marble torso all feature in Artcurial’s evening sale in its Paris rooms on May 16.

Among a handful of pieces of Gallé French art glass in a sale of decorative arts and design to be held by Tessier Sarrou & Associés at Drouot on May 4 is this example of the designer’s skills in the medium.

Described as one of the quiet glories of southern France, the ancient town of Pézenas is set in the Languedoc Roussillon region, all rocky outcrops, pines and vines.

Tintin has had another good day out in Paris. In an Artcurial sale on April 8 a European collector paid €753,000 (£643,815), including premiums and taxes, to buy an ink drawing done by Hergé for the 1937 comic book Tintin in America.

Marielle Barde, Edgar Degas’ great-niece, was one of the heirs and vendors of the Degas studio drawings and attended Christie’s Paris sale. This was the second such dispersal the family had held in these rooms of artworks from her famous great-uncle following a house move some decades ago.

This pastel portrait by Maurice Quentin de la Tour is the potential star of the auction taking place at Drouot held by Kalck & Associés.

While Degas’ youthful drawings produced some notable individual prices in Drawings Week, it is the classic charcoal and pastel drawings of Parisian dancers and workers from his mature years that are the most commercially popular (the current work on paper record is the premium-inclusive $37m/ £23.35m/€29m paid for Danseuse au repos of 1879 at Sotheby’s New York in 2008).

Among the raft of dedicated works on paper auctions staged for the recent Drawings Week in Paris were two market-fresh sales devoted to family collections of works by a single French artist.