International

As Frieze week in London has shown, once one art fair in a given city – London, New York, Paris – gains critical mass, others spring up around it.

What has been billed as the most significant sale of French 17th and 18th century paintings for 20 years was announced earlier this month.

David and Lee Ann Lester have cancelled their American International Fine Art Fair in Palm Beach, Florida at the last moment, citing changing market forces.

Philatelic and numismatic specialists Spink have posted annual sales figures of just under £29m.

Delftware experts Aronson of Amsterdam have recently reunited this pair of c.1690 Delft ‘bouquetière’ figures depicting William and Mary.

An example of the first of America’s iconic silver dollars will be on sale at Spink USA later this month.

More than half the receipts from Christie’s inaugural Exceptional sale in New York came from a single lot. And it was one with quite a history.

“It is a somewhat incoherent narrative, which, however, gives Lon Chaney an opportunity to turn up in an uncanny disguise and also to manifest his powers as Scotland Yard’s expert hypnotist. You are therefore treated to close-ups of Mr Chaney’s rolling orbs, which, fortunately, do not exert their influence on the audience.”

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury have announced two new alliances as they reshape the wider business as part of the Stanley Gibbons Group.

One of the greatest ‘barn finds’ ever has uncovered 60 classic cars – just one of which is a rare Ferraris valued at several million pounds – in outbuildings in the west of France.

The French National Antique Dealers’ Association (Syndicat National des Antiquaires), organisers of the long-running Paris ‘Biennale des Antiquaires’, have decided to mount an additional new annual fair for the French capital – the first to be held next spring.

James Watson’s 1962 award for his work on DNA set a world record price for a Nobel Prize Medal at Christie’s in New York when it sold for $4.1m (£2.6m) hammer.

Among the most important Asian works of art to come to market in the modern collecting era, an Imperial Ming dynasty embroidered silk thangka sold for HK$310m (£27m) at a Christie’s latest Chinese art series in Hong Kong.

The Kunstmuseum Bern’s announcement that it would accept the Gurlitt bequest (aside from any Nazi-looted art) has been followed by a pledge by Germany’s culture minister to return the disputed Matisse and other works to the families of their original owners.

Christie’s New York are offering the 1962 Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to Dr James D. Watson, one of the world’s greatest living scientists.

Arguably the most famous historic figure in French history and a princely provenance proved an irresistible combination earlier this month in France when a collection of Napoleonic memorabilia formed by the Grimaldi dynasty of Monaco went under the hammer.

Antiques Young Guns has announced it will launch the brand in the USA in 2015 through a new partnership with US Antiques Shows (USAS).

New York has witnessed some spectacular auction prices of late and another came last week as ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1’ by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was knocked down at $39.5m (£26.3m) at Sotheby’s American art sale.

Bonhams will their launch their sales of Modern and Contemporary Art from Asia in Hong Kong on March 15 during the ‘Art Basel Hong Kong’ week.

Sotheby’s Geneva managed to grab the headlines when the Henry Graves Supercomplication set a record for a timepiece at auction.