International

A Russian ceramic homage to Catherine the Great is among the highlights at Schloss Ahlden’s sale on May 6-7 in Ahlden, Lower Saxony. The impressive 22in (55cm) high bronze-mounted porcelain ensemble in the form of a temple dates to the 1780s or ’90s and is estimated at €48,000. It was produced by the Gardner factory in Moscow, which was founded in 1765.

Online giant eBay is threatening to block Australian customers from buying from overseas firms if the government enacts laws to collect a tax from online sales.

The German state has appealed against a landmark US court judgment that allowed three US citizens to proceed with a case seeking the restitution of an important collection of medieval devotional art.

Estimated at £500-800, a small Old Master painting of Christ wearing the crown of thorns drew spectacular competition at Adam’s of Dublin on April 9. It came from an institution in the Irish capital which the saleroom said was “doing some spring cleaning”. It was given the pick of around 100 paintings.

A major attraction in a PBA Galleries (20/15% buyer’s premium) sale of April 6 was the Samuel Hessel ‘DNA’ collection of scientific papers, journals and books.

Pictured here is one of several etchings by James Abbott McNeil Whistler that will feature in Swann Galleries’ sale of prints on May 2.

This 8¾in (23cm) diameter Liverpool delft charger, dated 1738, is initialled MML for Michael and Mary Lightfoot, members of a Quaker family who lived in Chester County.

A small 6¼ x 11in (16 x 27 cm) oil on canvas by Nicolas De Staël (1914-55), titled Composition and dating from 1950, is one of the potential highlights of the contemporary art auction to be held by Dorotheum in Vienna on May 31 and June 1.

An Ushak Star carpet fragment measuring 5ft 2in x 6ft 1in (1.57 x 1.85m) will feature in Jeffrey S Evans’ April 29 sale of antiques, decorative arts and 20th century design in Mount Crawford.

Tintin has had another good day out in Paris. In an Artcurial sale on April 8 a European collector paid €753,000 (£643,815), including premiums and taxes, to buy an ink drawing done by Hergé for the 1937 comic book Tintin in America.

A mid-19th century oil painting depicting in detail a scene at the height of the Australian gold rush is a potential highlight of a Sotheby’s Australia sale next month.