Australia

PAUL Sumner, brought in as managing director to launch Sotheby’s Olympia last year, has announced his aim to make Lawson-Menzies the top auction house in Australia within two years.

AUSTRALIAN auctioneers Cromwell’s are proving they are no square-heads by drumming up an army of loyal customers with a club for regular buyers.

AUSTRALIA: RATHER farther to go for an August fair, but no doubt a journey well rewarded is the Australian Antique Dealers Association’s own Antiques and Fine Art Fair.

ANY aspirant outlaw should know that in order to ensure a special place in folk tradition it is no good just killing and robbing, you have to acquire an idiosyncrasy or two that will add gloss to the flyposters and newspaper reports, and keep storytellers exciting children for generations to come.

AUSTRALIA: A COLLECTION of classic 18th century English and German porcelain gave a flying start to Christie’s Australia’s (17.5/10 per cent buyer’s premium) mammoth 575-lot, mixed-owner auction of Decorative Arts in Melbourne on May 28-29.

AUSTRALIA: BACK in the 1980s a local election campaign in a certain southern hemisphere country featured posters with the simple combination of a photo of the opposition candidate above the words GET THIS BASTARD.