International

Phillips have announced the appointment of Cheyenne Westphal as chairman, reporting to CEO Edward Dolman. Formerly Sotheby’s worldwide head of Contemporary art, she will start in her new role in 2017.

Just under $1.2bn changed hands at the top-end of the art market in New York this week as Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips all held their Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary auctions over seven days for the first time. Here is ATG’s pick of individual highlights sold across the week.

Renowned classic car auctioneer Max Girardo has left RM Sotheby’s to set up his own London-based brokerage, Girardo & Co, which will deal “in only the highest quality cars available to the market”.

Joseph Chait, a 38-year-old senior auction administrator with IM Chait gallery and auction house in Beverly Hills, has pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to smuggle items of rhino horn, ivory, coral and a hornbill casque.

The Palm Beach Show Group have announced the launch of a new fair in Miami Beach.

The Union Customs Code (UCC), designed to standardise how customs information is processed, became law on May 1.

A portrait by Eugène Delacroix redolent with associations to Nineteenth century French Romanticism has been secured by the Paris museum dedicated to his work.

A rare American stamp stolen in 1955 in one of the most famous thefts in philatelic history has been recovered after turning up at Spink.

Russian allegations that ISIS is netting $150-$200m annually from the sale of looted Syrian and Iraqi antiquities have been dismissed by the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA).

The Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring series of sales closed today chalking up a total of HK$502.8m/USD$64.5m/GB£242.3m.

Christie’s Paris are to sell two figures of mourners as part of their European Sculpture and Works of Art sale on June 15.

Sotheby’s has announced the appointment of two new co-European chairmen as well as the establishment of a new strategy board which is set to drive growth.

The prosecution in the trial of the Cols Rouges – the erstwhile portering staff at Hôtel Drouot, the communal saleroom facility used by most Paris auctioneers – have called for prison sentences of up to five years and fines of €250,000 for those found guilty of theft and criminal conspiracy.

The 29th staging of TEFAF Maastricht will go down as a good edition of the fair with dealers reporting decent sales overall and the changes made for this year’s event meeting general approval among the standholders.

ATG reporter Frances Allitt took her first trip to TEFAF Maastricht and, as well as witnessing the colour, excitement and love for art and objects that pervade the fair, she also learned some valuable lessons from dealers and visitors.

An original example of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic sold for €185,000 at Whyte’s of Dublin yesterday. Estimated at €150,000-250,000, the document published by the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army was one of only 40-50 known copies left in existence and it drew competition from two phone bidders, one from Ireland and the other from the US who ended up as the successful buyer.

The global market for art and antiques may have dropped by seven per cent in sales by value last year, but this is “not a signal that the bubble has burst”, the art market’s leading economist told TEFAF 2016 delegates this morning.

With the preview of TEFAF 2016 now underway, ATG gives you a snapshot around the stands of the fair.

Tighter regulations surrounding fraud and money laundering are prompting French banks to close the euro accounts of some UK dealers and shippers.

A medieval ring long associated with Joan of Arc sold for £240,000 – almost 30 times its estimate – at Timeline Auctions in Bloomsbury on February 25.