International

One of the big classical numismatics events of the year is the spring sale at Leu (15% buyer’s premium) in Zurich. This year’s, on May 5-6, was a bumper crop – with 1156 lots it is the largest sale that Leu have held since their foundation in 1956.

Quimper collectors will no doubt recognise this plate as quite a rarity. Manufactured by Henriot, c.1917, the design depicts Uncle Sam offering his support to the French people within a Stars and Stripes border.

NEW York’s top fair, Brian and Anna Haughton’s International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show, is full with some 70 exhibitors and it is noticeable how many of the top dealers have gone for larger stands.

20TH CENTURY Decorative Arts in New York: American museums are not so squeamish about deaccessioning as British ones and Christie’s New York (19.5/12% buyer’s premium) headlined its 20th Century Decorative Arts sale on June 12 with 52 lots of Tiffany from the Museum of Modern Art.

Zurich auctioneers Hess-Divo (15% buyer’s premium) held their fourth annual sale of 100 Raritäen on May 7. These events stand apart from their general sales and the catalogues are a mine of information.

More than half of the world’s leading collectors are now based in the USA, according to a survey conducted by the New York-based magazine ARTnews. The 13th annual review of the world’s most active collectors of art and antiques – assembled through interviews with dealers, auctioneers, collectors, museum directors, curators, and consultants – found that 105 of the top 200 collectors are American with eight of the top ten spenders from the world’s superpower.

DRESDEN’S Zwinger palace will enter the second phase of its renovation process in September, less than a year after the first phase culminated in the opening of the Porcelain Collection.

WITH more than 1000 dealers spread over 101/2 acres few would argue with the claim of Atlantique City to be the world’s largest indoor antiques and collectables show.

Bowrings, India’s only specialist fine art auction house, is to close after just two years of business to allow for lengthy court proceedings against the Indian government. The auctioneers have filed a writ against the Indian Ministry of Culture’s regulatory body ASI (Archeological Survey of India) and the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) disputing the demand that they need a licence to operate and sell antiquities.

FRANCE: July and August are periods of considerable saleroom activity for the coastal regions of France. The calendar here lists over 80 different sales scheduled for the next few weeks around the Channel, Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts but a much more detailed survey of these regions and forthcoming events is available in a special six-page section of this week’s Antiques Trade Gazette. If you wish to obtain a free copy call ++ 44 (0)207 6600.

THERE are few better ways of spending a sunny June afternoon than browsing around the gardens and castle of ’s-Gravenwezel, 10 miles outside Antwerp, as a guest of its owner, the legendary Belgian antique dealer and interior decorator Axel Vervoordt.

NEW York’s Posteritati Movie Posters, among the world’s leading specialists in the field, hold an exhibition of vintage posters from the MGM musicals of the 1930s to 1950s at their Manhattan gallery throughout July.

A bunch of flowers sold to a private buyer brought a welcome fragrance for Christie’s (24-18.5% buyer’s premium, excluding VAT) in their auction of Modern and Contemporary Art in Milan on May 26, and proved a powerful attraction, with a full room and numerous bidders on the telephone.

FRANCE: Knitting was a great leveller in the 18th century, it seems. An ivory pair of knitting needles, said to have once belonged to Marie-Antoinette, sold for €26,000 at Piasa (17.94% buyer’s premium) sale or royal memorabilia in Paris on May 21.

EVEN if it means shipping their stock across the Atlantic, there are more and more of the British trade who are determined that the Americans reluctance to travel over here is not going to stop us selling to them over there.

Casting aside one of the last vestiges of the old Phillips, the former New York headquarters of the auction house has been sold. The saleroom located at 406 East 79th Street on Manhattan's East Side was acquired during Phillips’ expansion in the United States in the 1990s and was retained by the company when LVMH bought into Phillips in 1999 and when Simon de Pury and Daniella Luxembourg took majority control in 2002.

Miety Heiden, Sotheby’s Amsterdam (22% buyer’s premium) picture specialist had a sneaking suspicion that Schelde Roeier, an oil on canvas by Belgian Expressionist Constant Permeke (1886-1952), would do well when it was offered in the 170-lot May 27 sale of Modern and Contemporary Art in the Dutch capital. But no-one was prepared for the record breaking sum.

US: DATES of October 14 to 20 have been fixed for the second annual New York Fall Fair at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York, and the opening night preview party will benefit the Frick Collection, one of Manhattan’s most celebrated museums.

LAPADA has issued some valuable guidelines to the recipients of cheques relating to the Sotheby’s and Christie’s price-fixing settlement in the USA. As the cheques began to arrive by post last week many were surprised to see that the US Federal Government had deducted a withholding tax from the awards.

THE Decorative Arts sale on May 19 at Tajan (14.35/20.33% buyer’s premium) was devoted almost exclusively to Art Deco and saw 165 of its 288 lots (57 per cent) find takers en route to a total of €3.18m (£2.2m) including premium. Unlike the sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the catalogue was in French only with no English translations.