The new men took up their posts at the annual conference of the international dealers’ federation, held in Dresden on June 24-27, when delegates from 21 countries discussed a range of topics from Nazi war loot to policy on websites.
The Swiss dealer association, Schweizerischer Galerien, was unanimously welcomed as a new member and two of the three Italian associations refused to attend in protest.
They objected to the fact that the Italian that they had nominated for last year’s CINOA Prize for original research had not won.
A decision on this year’s award, and the future of the prize, was postponed until a later meeting.
Departing president Rudolph Otto of Austria, whose dynamic style has done much to reinvigorate CINOA as a credible pressure group, reported on the current situation regarding droit de suite. Mark Dodgson of BADA spoke on UK import VAT.
The liveliest debate concerned the Internet. However there was general agreement that there was no practical advantage for CINOA members to seek partnership with any of the commercial organisations currently struggling for market share in the field of e-commerce.
Next year’s conference will be held in Melbourne in August to coincide with the Melbourne Fair which has CINOA’s backing.
Swiss dealer is new CINOA chief
WALTER FEILCHENFELDT, the Swiss picture dealer, has taken over as the president of CINOA, with Henry Neville of Mallett, former BADA chairman, as vice president.
