France

With the Olympics over and the new season well under way, there is plenty of activity in the French art market.

Studies include caricature-like portraits which were an early preoccupation of the young artist

A single-owner collection of 37 pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage formed part of Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) Design sale.

The largest private collection of Louis Vuitton trunks ever to come to auction was sold by Christie’s Paris (26% buyer’s premium) earlier this year.

Themed exhibitions at this year’s Parcours des Mondes link ethnographic art with Surrealist movement

A pair of pistols Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly intended to use on himself after defeat sold for €1.69m (£1.4m) including buyer’s premium at auction house Osenat in Fontainebleau, France.

Himalayan gilt metal statuettes featured prominently among the best-sellers in several Drouot sales including a number of modestly estimated examples that were pursued to way past their guides.

A lot that made far more than expected at Drouot’s latest Asian art sales was this large circular blue and white dish which came up at Theirry de Maigret (30% buyer’s premium inc tax).

These two very different screens were among the notable results recorded in the Asian sales at Drouot.

Over the course of six days from June 7-14, a dozen sales devoted to the arts of Asia were staged by 11 firms at the Drouot auction centre as part of Printemps Asiatique.

A group of Chinese objects in a June 14 sale of furniture and works of art held by Coutau Begarie (30% buyer’s premium inc tax) included this carved celadon jade group dated to the 18th century.

Dealer Speelman’s own figures and vessels shine among Asian art sales held in Paris

A long bidding battle took this Qianlong mark and period covered vase to a triple-estimate €230,000 (£194,915) to top Peschetau-Badin’s (30% buyer’s premium inc tax) Asian arts sale on June 13.

Most Parisian galleries are going away for the summer but one hardy soul is holding an Olympic exhibition

In a private collection since it was last sold in 1991, one of only two known autograph manuscripts by author and journalist Albert Camus of his masterpiece L’Etranger was sold by Tajan (23/20/12% buyer’s premium) in Paris on June 5.

The Ivoire Clermont-Ferrand auction house in France has organised themed sales based around the famous Michelin Guide for 25 years with its specialist Pierre Gabriel Gonzalès.