Europe

In the wider world, the photographer Nadar (Gaspard Félix Tournachon) is best known for the fact that it was in his former studio on the Boulevard des Capucines that the Impressionists held their first group exhibition in 1874.

THE history of France’s famous Sleeper Car Company was commemorated in a single-owner sale at Christie’s in Paris last month.

Becoming the most expensive painting ever sold in Ireland, A Fair Day, Mayo by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) was knocked down at €1m (£917,430) at Adam's lastest sale in Dublin.

This week sees the launch of Figaro Enchères, a joint venture between ATG Media and French national newspaper Le Figaro.

CLAUDE Aguttes, the dynamic auctioneer with salerooms at Neuilly and Lyons, has been named president of a new conseil de surveillance or supervisory board to oversee the running of the Hôtel Drouot.

FOUR people have gone on trial in Germany on charges linked to a multi-million pound art fraud exposed as a result of scientific testing on paint.

FRENCH auction houses have won their battle to conduct private treaty sales.

Making a record price for any Venetian view painting at auction, Francesco Guardi's (1712-1793) monumental View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon sold for £23.8m hammer at Sotheby's Old Master evening sale on July 7.

SPIRALLING debts and a lack of prospects have forced the closure of Finarte Casa d’Aste S.p.A., formerly a major player in the Italian auctions scene.

GERMAN fine art auctioneers Ketterer Kunst will move their Hamburg branch to new premises later this month after ten years in the Messberghof.

THE man who oversaw the French Revolution's 'reign of terror' but who finally met his end at the guillotine himself, Maximilien de Robespierre, was back on the block again at the end of last month as Sotheby's auctioned an extraordinary cache of documents in Paris.

FRENCH auction houses have toughened their stance on Chinese bidders after a series of well-publicised problems with non-payment.

THE mammoth, 875-lot, three-day sale from the collections of the Château de Gourdon staged by Christie's in Paris closed last week closed having raised a hammer total of €35.1m (£31.9m).

A ROW has erupted after another attempt by South American interests to intervene in a tribal art sale in Paris.

A PIECE from a celebrated but elusive porcelain service that turned up at the latest sale at Aguttes in Paris understandably caused great excitement.

SOTHEBY'S have announced that they are to make Paris their European centre for sales of 20th century decorative art and design and photographs.

A SALE of Olympic memorabilia at Vassy-Jalenques SARL in Paris on February 3 includes this rare official Olympic torch from the 1952 Helsinki summer games.

AUCTION turnover figures for Paris in 2010 show the city’s three major firms – Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Artcurial – gaining market share at the expense of crisis-ridden Drouot.

THE ten Parisian dealers hoping to push Old Masters into the limelight in the French capital have confirmed their decision to hold a fair dedicated to the genre this autumn with dates and details.

MUNICH saleroom Ketterer Kunst enjoyed a record year in 2010, posting annual sales of €21.6m (€26m including premium).