International

About 80% of the global art market by value takes place outside the UK. The largest art market in the world is the US with China in third place (after the UK) followed by France, Germany and Switzerland.

Many more nations have a rich art and antiques heritage with active auction, dealer, fair, gallery and museum sectors even if their market size by value is smaller.

Read the top stories and latest art and antiques news from all these countries.

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A view from the Degas family on his works at auction

18 April 2017

Marielle Barde, Edgar Degas’ great-niece, was one of the heirs and vendors of the Degas studio drawings and attended Christie’s Paris sale. This was the second such dispersal the family had held in these rooms of artworks from her famous great-uncle following a house move some decades ago.

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Tiffany jewels at auction in New York

18 April 2017

Much like René Lalique, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s successful career as a glassmaker overshadowed his genius as a goldsmith. Both men created jewellery that have come to define Art Nouveau in France and North America.

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Paris auction previews: Quentin de la Tour pastel and 18th century Belgian teapot

18 April 2017

This pastel portrait by Maurice Quentin de la Tour is the potential star of the auction taking place at Drouot held by Kalck & Associés.

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Massachusetts auction preview: American banker’s Asian art collection

18 April 2017

A 600-lot sale devoted to Asian art held by Tremont auctions in Newton, Massachusetts, on April 23 will include a 4ft (1.2m) high vase made in the late 19th century.

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New view of anti-slavery heroine

18 April 2017

A carte-de-visite album of the 1860s containing a previously unknown photograph of the abolitionist heroine Harriet Tubman was one of the high points of the March 30 sale held by Swann (25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

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Horsepower fails in face of the atmosphere

18 April 2017

Otto von Guericke’s Experimenta nova (ut vocantur) magdeburgica de vacuo spatio… of 1672 describes the experiments in which he produced an air pump able to create a vacuum and thus demonstrate the pressure exerted by our atmosphere.

Pearls printed by the Soncinos

18 April 2017

A collection of ethical maxims, proverbs and moral reflections compiled by Solomon ibn Gabirol and translated from the Arabic by Judah ibn Tibbon was printed for the first time in Venice in 1484 as Mivchar HaPeninim (Choice Pearls).

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Trees blossom in fruitful photo auctions in New York

13 April 2017

The cusp of March to April is traditionally photo time in the Big Apple. It is the period when AIPAD (The Association of International Photography Art Dealers) stages The Photography Show, which is the main US fair for photography, and the point when the major New York auction houses put on the first of their biannual stateside series of photo auctions.

Napoleon ring sold at Osenat auction

Napoleon’s gold ring given to young love takes €29,000 in Fontainebleau auction

12 April 2017

A gold ring set that was given by the young Napoleon to a youthful love, Caroline du Colombier, sold for a double estimate €29,000 (£25,220) at a recent auction in France.

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‘All risk’ insurance won’t cover Dutch theft

10 April 2017

An audacious robbery in Amsterdam has left a dealer without insurance cover for the theft of more than 250 Asian works of art.

Christie’s to appeal over resale right ruling

10 April 2017

Christie’s is to appeal last month’s French court ruling that declared Droit de Suite is a charge on the vendor rather than the buyer.

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Daniel Quare barometer heats up Austrian auction

10 April 2017

Daniel Quare (1648-1724) is primarily known as a clock and watchmaker. He was, however, also an accomplished maker of portable barometers, one of which came up for sale at Dorotheum (25/22/15% buyer’s premium) in Vienna on March 29.

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Four-star sword for military showman Patton

10 April 2017

One thing you could never accuse General George S Patton of was being shy. Not that top military men are exactly shrinking violets but even so, Patton is renowned as particularly bombastic. He fits perfectly into the type of American general in the Custer and MacArthur mould, happy to blow their own trumpets.

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Views of a vanished world wow at auction in Paris

10 April 2017

Published in New York in 1977, The Vanished World Portfolio is a selection of a dozen photographs from the very many that were taken in the late 1930s in Cracow, Warsaw, the Carpathian regions and elsewhere in eastern Europe by Roman Vishniac (1897-1990).

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Famous fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen's jester amuses at auction

10 April 2017

Hans Christian Andersen did not confine himself to the fairy tales that are his principal and lasting legacy.

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High-quality paper made in France aids in identification of charcoal drawing sold in Dresden

10 April 2017

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.

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Russian medal marking victory over Persia sold at auction

10 April 2017

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.

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Meiji incense burner is €12,000 (£10,435) Dusseldorf auction buy

10 April 2017

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.

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American Arctic exploration classic up at New York auction

10 April 2017

The Arctic Regions, 1873, a sumptuously bound narrative of American artist William Bradford’s seven expeditions to the Arctic, illustrated with 141 mounted albumen photographs, is the highest-estimated lot in the April 20 Swann Galleries photographs and photobooks sale.

Ming bowl

Exceptional Ming ‘fish pond’ bowl sells for more than £22m at auction in Hong Kong

05 April 2017

An exceptional Xuande mark and period ‘fish pond’ bowl, trumpeted by Sotheby’s as among the greatest examples of early Ming blue and white porcelain in private hands, sold in Hong Kong for HK$229m (£22.9m) on April 4.

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