Europe

For almost half a century, a portrait of a young nobleman by the Flemish artist Bernard van Orley had been hidden.

An unattributed French 18th century pen and ink drawing was highly sought after at the auction held by Bassenge (25% buyer’s premium) in Berlin.

After almost a century since it was last shown in public, a painting by Wassily Kandinsky, Villa Seeburg am Staffelsee from 1911 topped the evening sale at Ketterer (29/23/15% buyer’s premium) in Munich.

Kinsky (25% buyer’s premium) in Vienna completely underestimated the international interest for a painting by the late 17th century Swiss artist Joseph Werner (1637-1710) offered in an art and antiques sale this summer.

Several bidders set their sights on a late 18th century flintlock hunting rifle which was offered by Dawo (25.95% buyer’s premium) in Saarbrücken.

The one-time director of the State Museum of Baden in south-west Germany, Rudolf Schnellbach, was obviously an astute buyer of art.

One year after the EU’s ‘new’ cultural goods import regime became fully operational, a leading arts and culture lawyer says the EU is failing in its stated objective of combating illicit trade.

The new rules aimed to prevent objects of illicit origin from reaching the European market. Fred Clark, partner at Boodle Hatfield and arts and culture specialist, gives his expert view on progress 12 months later

By coincidence, in the very week that a recently discovered work by Mozart – a previously unknown composition for harp and flute – was premiered in Paris, a piece of Mozart ephemera caused a stir in Vienna.

Qianlong (1735-96) period ‘Boy and chicken’ cups typically pay homage to those made in the Ming period – particularly the celebrated Chenghua (1464-87) doucai prototypes that have long been considered among the greatest Chinese porcelains.

A group of four original lithograph posters advertising exhibitions of the Viennese Secession was well received at Karl & Faber (27% buyer’s premium) in Munich.

As early details about this year’s Frieze Masters have been released, dealers have also started sharing some key pieces of stock they will have on show.

A letter by Carl Linnaeus (1707-78), father of modern botany and taxonomy, has set an auction record in his native Sweden.

Not a first edition of the horror classic but the version printed five years later is also sought after

Might anyone be able to help track down a missing painting by Thomas Fearnley (1802-42), a Norwegian landscape painter of English descent?

Even though, as a rule, big-name wristwatches still attract the highest prices, recent sales show a resilient market for pocket watches.