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.

Sellers retain the right to anonymity, rules New York Appeals Court

06 January 2014

The New York Court of Appeals has overturned a decision that could have forced the state’s auctioneers to make public the names of their consignors.

Sotheby’s figures show rising taste for Western art in China

16 December 2013

The importance of China as a source of new clients in the international art market has been highlighted in a business intelligence report made available to ATG by Sotheby’s.

TEFAF Beijing put on hold for now but could return at later date

13 December 2013

Since the idea was first announced in March, news had gone quiet on a possible ‘TEFAF Beijing’, a collaboration between ‘TEFAF Maastricht’ and Sotheby’s Joint Venture in Beijing with GeHua.

Doubts rise over Munich art hoard returns

04 December 2013

Statute of limitations laws may prevent previous owners successfully reclaiming art acquired during the Nazi purge of the late 1930s that was hoarded in a Munich flat.

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Psalm book sets £8.1m auction record for a printed book

29 November 2013

The most expensive printed book sold at auction will go on display to the public after the buyer pledged to lend it to libraries across the US before putting it on permanent loan at one of them.

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Barker steps in as Meyer quits Sotheby’s

29 November 2013

Oliver Barker is to take over responsibility for evening Contemporary art sales for Sotheby’s in New York and London following the departure of Tobias Meyer.

Sotheby’s launch Beijing Art Week

25 November 2013

From November 28 to December 1 Sotheby’s will hold the series of private and public sales they have dubbed ‘Beijing Art Week’. It is the largest event Sotheby’s have held in China.

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Celebrating a bank on the slide

19 November 2013

Collectors have known about the possible existence of an unseen mechanical money bank by J. & E. Stevens of Connecticut for more than half a century. It’s just that one had never turned up – until now.

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Symbols of longevity – and wealth

15 November 2013

A new record for any work of art sold in New Zealand was set when Webb’s in Auckland sold this pair of 19th century Chinese carved rhinoceros horns for NZ$680,000 (£375,700).

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Bacon sets new all-time saleroom high at $127m

13 November 2013

Saleroom history was made in New York last night as Francis Bacon’s 'Three Studies Of Lucian Freud' set a new high for any lot ever sold at auction.

Debate over status of €1bn Munich art cache

11 November 2013

Details are slowly emerging regarding the discovery in Munich some two years ago of an extraordinary cache of art with a Nazi era provenance.

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Giacometti at $44.5m lifts mood amid mixed fortunes in New York

08 November 2013

A thin head by Alberto Giacometti (1901-66) was one of a handful of market-fresh works that helped lift the latest Impressionist & Modern art sales in New York.

French U-turn on import VAT

06 November 2013

The French art world has welcomed their government’s decision to cut, rather than increase, the rate on tax for works imported in to France from outside the EU.

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Rome deal for Dreweatts & Bloomsbury

05 November 2013

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury auctions have joined forces with Philobiblon, a leading Italian antiquarian books and manuscripts specialist, to offer monthly valuation events, auctions and fine art exhibitions in Rome.

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Wartski win $5.2m Fabergé figure

04 November 2013

This Fabergé carved hardstone figure of an Imperial bodyguard, recently rediscovered in the attic of an estate in upstate New York, has sold for $5.2m (£3.38m) at Stair Galleries in Hudson, New York. It has an extraordinary history.

Triple-A head east for second Chinese sale with a silver lining

22 October 2013

The Association of Accredited Auctioneers (Triple-A), founded in 2012 by UK regional auctioneers to attract Chinese buyers, are to hold a second auction of Western antiques in China.

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Memorabilia kingpin admits – ‘I trimmed world’s most expensive baseball card’

21 October 2013

Bill Mastro, once the biggest name in the US sports memorabilia business, has admitted to a federal judge that he doctored the world’s most valuable baseball card to make it appear in mint condition.

Palm Beach group buy Avenue Show

21 October 2013

The Palm Beach Show Group have acquired the ‘Antiques, Art & Design at the Armory Show,’ known as the ‘Avenue Show’, from Manhattan Media.

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New high for 19th century Meissen in New York

18 October 2013

This spectacular pair of 19th century Meissen covered urns sailed past their top estimate of $15,000 to bring $175,000 (£114,400) at the sale held by Cottone Auctions in Geneseo, New York earlier this month.

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Chinese and Russian bidders dominate in sellout sale of opulent Pennsylvania collection

17 October 2013

If you delight in the 19th century rococo revival style – playful putti, festoons of ormolu and pastoral vignettes – then the Safford sale held by Freeman’s in Philadelphia was for you.

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