International

There is nothing quite like dying young for genius to acquire immortality. An object lesson in this came with the predictably frantic bidding from the four corners of the world at the sale of some effects once belonging to Maria Callas. The total of €1.3m (£900,000) trebled expectations.

Christie’s held the first auction of spirits in New York since Prohibition on December 8.

It is only 3.25in (8cm) high, but it made more than any sculpture or antiquity ever offered at auction.

Stella Show Management have said that Antiques at the Armory, the January 18-20 antiques show at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City, will go ahead as planned.

Lawrence B. Salander, the embattled Manhattan art dealer, has filed for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy protection citing debts of between $50m and $100m.

DATE changes for Arts of Pacific Asia at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue mean the event effectively launches the 2008 New York Spring Asia Week.

When the last of the 823 lots in the sale of the contents Ariane Dandois’ Gallery on the Faubourg St Honoré in Paris was hammered down by Sotheby’s on October 26, it provided a $32.2m (£16.9m) grand finale to a month of sales devoted to traditional areas of the decorative arts in New York.

Leading Florida auction business Arthur James Galleries of Delray Beach is for sale.

A private San Francisco bank has emerged as one of the largest creditors of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries.

Auction houses and antiques malls in the United States are reporting a surge in overseas buying on the internet thanks to the weak dollar.

FRENCH auctioneers are to hold their next open weekend of events on November 17-18.

Art dealer Andrew Sim has sold a watercolour by Richard Dadd (1817-1886) to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It is the first work by the enigmatic Victorian artist to enter the museum’s vast art collection.

New York Old Master dealers Salander-O’Reilly are expected to file for bankruptcy after a state judge ordered their gallery to be closed indefinitely.

Sotheby’s have posted their highest price in Paris since the French auction market was opened to foreign firms in 2001.

Whitfield Fine Art pull out as Salander-O’Reilly’s multi-million dollar legal problems escalate

THE French government are so concerned about their dwindling share of the global art market that they have come up with a four-point plan to rescue it. They include a measure that effectively calls for the scrapping of due diligence for auctioneers.

Two January fairs run by Stella Show Management in New York are under threat from construction problems and the occupation of an armory building by the National Guard.

A delegation of 17 members of the Syndicat National des Maison de Ventes Voluntaires (SyMEV, the main body representing French auctioneers) was in England last week for a three-day study tour investigating different aspects of the UK market.

Provincial auctioneer’s novel twist for breaking into the American market

Antiquorum, the world’s leading watch auctioneers, insist it will be “business as usual” following the shock departure this August of the Geneva firm’s charismatic founder, Osvaldo Patrizzi, after a row with Japanese owners Artist House Holdings, who acquired Antiquorum for a reported $30m in 2006.