International

The Château of Versailles exercised its right of pre-emption to acquire an 18th century painting of its orangerie that was offered at auction.

Wildlife campaigners are calling for a crackdown on ivory exports from the UK after a report revealed trade doubled to Hong Kong last year.

One of the famed 16th century bronze plaques recovered from the charred ruins of the Benin Kingdom’s royal palace carries an estimate of $800,000-$1.2m at Quinn’s Auction Galleries in Virginia on October 1.

The long-awaited tax fraud trial of art dealer Guy Wildenstein has begun in Paris.

Fancy owning a piece of the Eiffel Tower, the ceiling from a Parisian boulangerie or butcher’s shop or an old seat from the Metro?

The market for antique ivory in France looks set to be paralysed by bureaucracy, a lawyer for dealer association Syndicat National des Antiquaires (SNA) has told ATG.

Not many cabinets can have been owned by a pope and a king but a piece of furniture bought by the J Paul Getty Museum at Sotheby’s Paris can make that proud claim.

SPECTACULAR sums were paid for Chinese ceramics devoted to tea drinking during last week’s Asian works of art sales in New York.

A D-Day Landings Omaha Beach flag is being offered at C&T Auctioneers on September 28.

Carlton Varney, president of Dorothy Draper & Co and well-known US interior decorator, is set to open this year’s Irish Antique Dealers’ Fair.

Two fresh to the market Edvard Munch prints are coming up for sale at Sotheby’s Prints & Multiples sale in London on September 27.

Chrisite’s New York hope match the record they set for Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) four years ago with a painting that comes to the market for the first time in 50 years.

The Dutch buyer of ‘the most valuable Second World War battle flag ever sold’ has loaned it to the National Military Museum in Soesterberg, the Netherlands.

Paintings by the intensely private artist Keith Cunningham are to be reintroduced to the public during an upcoming exhibition in Hoxton.

A UK-based art collector has been banned from exporting a World War II era painting from Australia.

The skin-tight sequined dress worn by Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe when she sung ‘Happy Birthday’ to the then-US President John F. Kennedy at a 1962 gala will go on sale at an auction in November with a £2.25m estimate.

The sentencing of former porters and auctioneers in Paris this week for the organised theft of thousands of artworks means the affair “belongs in the past”, the head of France’s auctioneering body told ATG.

The Parcours des Mondes, Paris' annual tribal trail and one of the biggest commercial gatherings in this collecting area, opened on September 6.

Bonhams have followed Christie’s in increasing their buyer’s fees by adjusting their premium thresholds.

Pall Mall Art Advisors have closed their European operations, shutting their offices in St James’s, London and Amsterdam. Meanwhile former UK managing director Rachel Doerr has launched her own firm with six colleagues called Doerr Valuations.