A mix of surprising and more predictable results emerged in the first round of Old Master auctions in Germany and Austria this autumn.

Among the many hundreds of services manufactured in Meissen, the Schwanenservice (Swan Service) is one of the most exclusive – a fact not lost on today’s collectors of 18th century German porcelain.

The Bavarian capital city of Munich is an ever-expanding centre of prosperity, home to the carmaker BMW, leading insurers and major industrial concerns as well as numerous IT businesses.

The first round of Munich auctions took place at the end of September and produced several notable results for paintings and sculpture. They include a rare appearance at the rostrum for a work by a Greek artist who studied in the Bavarian capital and a 19th century Orientalist subject painted in Rome by a German artist shortly after a return journey from Greece.

October is Munich is a busy time for art and antiques with two major fairs running concurrently in the city. ATG looks at what will be in store for visitors.

The summer season brought a raft of modern art sales to continental Europe and the various salerooms around Germany were no exception.

The unexpected highlight of a recent sale at Beurret & Bailly (20% buyer’s premium) in Basel was a work by the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) which had been considered lost for over a century.

Austrian artists figured prominently at the June 20-21 sale at Kinsky (26% buyer’s premium) in Vienna.

The biggest sensation at Scheublein (26% buyer’s premium) in Munich on June 30 was caused by an oil painting of American Indians from the mid-19th century. It was an oil study for a famous painting by Carl Ferdinand Wimar (1828-62), who also went by the name of Charles Wimar.

Dealers in and collectors of Asian art were spoilt for choice around the middle of June in Europe. As well as the Asian sale series in Paris (see last week’s ATG, No 2300), a vast selection of works came up for sale in Zurich, Cologne, Brussels, Salzburg and Stuttgart.

Bavaria is the most popular tourist destination in Germany and for more than 20 years the historic city of Bamberg has hosted a summer event in which a dozen prestigious dealers and galleries take part in a joint sales exhibition, held in their own premises.

German salerooms move series to Austria and Belgium in the wake of cultural goods law...

Recent Old Master paintings in Vienna and Cologne have yielded some predicted but also unexpected results including a high price for a work by a German better known for his poems and plays than his paintings.

The Malayan artist Cheong Soo Pieng (1917-83) is hardly a household name in Europe. Virtually all of his paintings that have sold at auction in recent decades came under the hammer in Hong Kong or Singapore.

A French Old Master drawing, a 20th century work by a specialist animal painter and an American Abstract Expressionist work were among the pictures that have performed strongly in auctions across the German regions and in Austria recently.

A 50 ducat medal commemorating the end of the Russo-Persian war was worth far more than its weight in gold at Künker (23% buyer’s premium) in Osnabruck in the March 13-17 sale.

Numerous bidders competed for a5½in (14cm) high Japanese incense burner from the Meiji period (1868-1912) at a sale held by Hargesheimer (25% buyer’s premium) in Dusseldorf on March 10-11.

From minimalist lamp to starry chandelier