International

The Reserve Bank of Australia are to challenge eBay on their decision to make PayPal mandatory on all sales listings. The RBA says it will “shortly be holding discussions with PayPal [an eBay subsidiary] with a view to seeking the removal of these rules”.

SOTHEBY’S have announced that, as of next year, all their dedicated contemporary Asian art sales will be held in Hong Kong.

Tiffany & Co have appealed over the ruling that eBay do not have to police their auction site for fakes before they are sold to unwitting buyers.

The FBI are attempting to track down the rightful owners of 137 works of art, discovered in a New York apartment, which are thought to have been stolen in the 1960s and 70s.

Christie’s have announced that they are to sell the multi-million collection of Yves St Laurent, who died in June, and his business partner Pierre Bergé in February next year.

CHRISTIE’S first wine sale in Asia for seven years will take place in November after the auctioneers have decided to reintroduce wine auctions in Hong Kong.

With an eye to one of the world’s major emerging markets, Christie’s are strengthening their position in the Far East.

Ebay have won a landmark judgment in the US federal courts, which effectively protects their position as an independent trading platform.

GALERIE Kugel in Paris are to hold an exhibition of the Prince of Liechtenstein’s collection of bronzes from September 10 to November 7.

The German auctioneers Ketterer Kunst will mark the opening of their first purpose-built saleroom at Neue Messe in Munich with a traditional Bavarian-style topping-out ceremony on July 23.

This $1000 Straits Settlement bill was described by Spink specialist Barnaby Faull as “the holy grail of Asian Pacific banknotes” after it had sold for Sin$420,000 (£180,000) plus buyer’s premium in Singapore on July 5.

EBAY Australia have decided to drop the case for PayPal exclusivity ahead of a decision on the matter fro the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

A FRENCH company has launched a new online stolen art database which allows victims of theft to offer rewards directly.

EBAY have vowed to fight a new French court ruling that effectively makes them responsible for what is sold on their site. In effect, the ruling could mean them having to vet items before they are offered, rather than removing offending objects once they have been alerted to them.

A DEAL is being finalised which means Palm Beach | America's International Fine Art & Antique Fair, is owned once again by Florida-based entrepreneur David Lester, who founded the event.

The only known copy of the world’s first telephone directory sold for $140,000 (£71,430) at Christie’s New York on June 17 as part of an $11m (£5.9m) sale of the Richard Green scientific library.

A COLLECTION of furniture and objects from a grand Parisian townhouse will go under the hammer in France at the end of the month – courtesy of the Ivory Coast Government.

TWO very different scenes of cricket matches in progress sold recently at very different locations. The artists themselves could also hardly be more contrasting: Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) and L.S. Lowry (1887-1976).

Sotheby’s New York and Christie's King Street both withdrew furniture lots provenanced to dealers John and Carlton Hobbs from sale last week – casualties of the unfolding "fake" furniture scandal first exposed by The Sunday Times.

A FRENCH court has ruled for the first time that eBay are directly responsible for what is sold on their website.