Art finance

The American art-secured lending market is growing significantly, with an estimated loan book size of between $15bn-19bn.

The latest Russian art sales in London posted the weakest results in over a decade as a drop-off in both demand and supply brought a further downturn in the market.

The German Cultural Property and Heritage Protection Law (Kulturschutzgesetz) is due to be debated in the German Bundestag next spring after a “defused” draft of the law received cabinet approval on November 4.

The large sums of money changing hands at the top end of the Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art market was underlined at the latest auctions in New York.

The hefty guarantee paid out by Sotheby’s to secure the Alfred Taubman collection meant the stakes were running high for the first and most financially crucial tranche of the four-part auction staged at Sotheby’s New York.

Online auction site Paddle8, who recently took space in Mayfair, have secured $34m in new funding.

Ahead of the 18th staging of ‘Asian Art in London’ (November 5-14) – and against a backdrop of a slowdown in the Chinese economy – we invited senior members of the dealing fraternity to give their views on the market and their expectations for the event.

Online dealer marketplace 1stdibs has raised between $50m and $60m from venture capitalists Insight Venture Partners, Fortune magazine reports.

An American businessman has been charged in a New York court accused of applying improper valuations to items sold from his art and antiques collection.

The collection of the late A Alfred Taubman is to be offered in a series of sales in New York, starting this autumn.

Sotheby’s share price dropped by over 8% earlier this month after the company posted some weaker-than-expected second quarter results.

The Wedgwood Collection has gone back on public display now a £34m museum redevelopment is complete.

Coin specialists AH Baldwin & Sons are encouraging their customers to sign the petition opposing an amendment to the controversial German Cultural Property and Heritage Protection Law.

Exhibitors at British showground fairs must pay 20% VAT on pitch rentals, a tribunal has decided.

An art dealer from Cornwall has been sentenced after pleading guilty to seven counts of fraud relating to the sale of fake paintings, including works he claimed were by Alfred Wallis (1855-1942).

This striking 2ft 1½in (64.4cm) high Luba figural bowstand made c.1880 by the Warua Master was the runaway star of London’s high season sales.

Mayfair art agent Timothy Sammons is facing a string of legal claims over soured multi-million-pound deals in the United Kingdom and the United States involving paintings by Van Gogh, Canaletto, Picasso, Chagall, Modigliani and Magritte.

Sotheby’s evening sale of Old Master and British paintings was led by Lucas Cranach the Elder’s La Bocca della Verità (The Mouth of Truth) which made a major auction record when it was knocked down at £8.2m.

The latest series of Contemporary art auctions in London posted a bumper total despite the failure of some big-ticket lots.

The divergence in charges between the FAB model and the traditional model grows exponentially as prices rise. However, as this series of examples show, there is a lower threshold of around $5000 below which it is less cost effective.