International

USA: The 200-lot literature section of a photograph sale held by Swanns on June 6 included a good run of the famous American publication, Camera Work, comprising Nos. 1 and 3-10 of the years 1903-05, plus the Steichen supplement of 1906.

Setting new standards of perfection in a condition-conscious toy marketplace at Skinner’s of Boston Massachusetts on July 20 was an unopened 1962 Mattel shipping carton containing 12 New Fashion Queen Barbies.

GERMANY: The sales of the firm of Kricheldorf (15% buyer’s premium) of Freiburg are relatively rare occasions but when they do hold them there are a large number of lots. There were two sales in July at Berlin. That on July 29-30 was a general affair (4205 lots).

THE State of Illinois is on the verge of introducing a new law to tackle Internet fraud that could lead the way for legislation elsewhere in the US and across the world.

AMSTERDAM: It was a full house at the Christie’s Amsterdam(23.205% buyer’s premium) salerooms on July 2, when the one-off sale of African and Oceanic Art from the Estate of the late Baron Freddy Rolin took place.

This muscular terracotta modellino of a moor, Il Moro, 2ft 75/8in high (80.5cm), attributed to Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), wrested the top slot from a powerfully modelled pair of 16th century bronzes in Sotheby’s (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) 174-lot European Sculpture and Works of Art 900-1900 auction on July 9.

GERMANY: There was widespread relief in the art world last week when the Zwinger Palace museum was saved from the worst of the flooding in Dresden.

USA: Dargate Auction Galleries of Pittsburgh, USA, will conduct their first sale under new ownership on September 20-21. Owners Dan Zivcho and Paul Novascel, two Cleveland-based investors who bought the business at auction for $50,000 earlier this year upon the retirement of former owners Carol and Larry Farley, have now signed a lease on new premises.

GERMANY: The world’s largest collection of Meissen porcelain has had to be rescued from serious flooding – only a week after plans were announced for the re-opening of the museum that houses it.

There is to be a major sale of Irish coins and medals in Dublin next year, on Friday, February 21, at the time of the Dublin International Coin Fair. This is being jointly hosted by James Adam of Dublin and Bonhams under their alias Glendining’s.

AFTER spending much of the summer in London trying to woo British dealers over to his Fall Fair in New York, it was back in America that more recently organiser David Lester achieved his biggest coup so far in launching this new event.

INDISPUTABLY Maryland’s top antique event, and arguably one of America’s top antiques attractions, the 22nd annual Baltimore Summer Antiques Fair runs from August 23 to 25.

The ceramics highlight of a mixed subject sale at Raymond de Nicolaÿ (17.94/14.35% buyer’s premium) at Drouot on June 26 was this elaborately decorated maiolica charger c.1520, from Deruta, 19in (49cm) in diameter, which made a double-estimate €330,000 (£213,000).

ANTHONY Molloy worked as a wildlife ranger for Ireland’s national heritage service, Duchas. When he retired a few years ago, at 65, his farewell gift was not the traditional watch, but a metal detector.

AUSTRALIAN auctioneers Cromwell’s are proving they are no square-heads by drumming up an army of loyal customers with a club for regular buyers.

BONHAMS, who have just announced their acquisition of US fine art auctioneers Butterfields from eBay, are to consolidate almost their entire programme of London sales at Knightsbridge and Bond Street.

After three years of restoration work, the porcelain rooms of the Zwinger State Art Collection in Dresden are to re-open to the public on Sunday October 6.

FRANCE: THE Louis XVI pyramid clock, 2ft 1in (63cm) and confidently attributed to bronzier François Vion, soared to a double-estimate €200,000 (£129,000), despite the fact that the escapement and pendulum suspension had been replaced, at De Nicolaÿ (15/10% buyer’s premium) on June 26.

FRANCE: Millon & Associés (17.5/ 13.5% buyer’s premium) June 26 sale included two watercolours taken from an album of drawings by Eugene Delacroix, which the artist presented to Count Charles de Mornay on their return from Morocco in 1832.

AUSTRALIA: RATHER farther to go for an August fair, but no doubt a journey well rewarded is the Australian Antique Dealers Association’s own Antiques and Fine Art Fair.