Industry data

Late December is when the Paris rooms traditionally produce their ‘bilan’ or annual sales figures. For 2011, as in 2010, there remain three front runners who are way ahead of the others.

Confirming the time-honoured ability of auctioneers to attract vendors in a recession, the UK’s top tier of regional salerooms enjoyed a largely positive 2011.

Modern living is continuing its migration away from formal dining, according to a new survey of 2000 UK households.

ED Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, has appointed London art dealer Lowell Libson as a member of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest.

THE parlous state of the English antique furniture market is confirmed this week with a sharp fall in the Antique Collectors' Club's Annual Furniture Index.

INCREASING revenues at Sotheby’s have given a further indication of the recovering art market. The company’s latest set of results shows a major turnaround for the first nine months of 2010, going from a loss of around $80m for the equivalent period in 2009 to a profit of $64.7m.

THE latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ (RICS) survey points to prices picking up slightly for mid-range goods at auction in the UK provinces.

IT has been revealed that the sum paid for the contents of Dumfries House in Ayrshire was £30m. The contents were acquired for the nation with the help of a loan from the Prince of Wales shortly before they were due to be sold at auction in 2007.

ATG readers spend £1.1bn a year on art and antiques, £800m of it at auction.

CHRISTIE’S have announced worldwide sales of £1.7bn ($2.57m) for the first half of 2010 – 46 per cent up on the same period for 2009.

CINOA, the international confederation of art dealers, are appealing for ATG readers' help in their latest study, entitled The Changing Role of the Art Dealer: Historical and Future Perspectives.

SOTHEBY’S first quarter results have been boosted by February’s healthy Contemporary and Impressionist sales in London, showing the company on a decisive upward curve after last year’s slump in revenues.

BUSINESS is holding up well for members of the British Antique Dealers’ Association despite the recession. With a projected combined turnover of about £752m, the impact of the downturn has not been as heavy as feared.

IMPORTS and exports of art and antiques for the UK shrank by around a quarter in 2009. In what proved to be one of the most difficult trading years since the early 1990s, exports across the globe fell by 24.3% to just over £2bn, while imports dropped by 26.2% to £1.86bn.

RUNNING a tighter ship and targeting commissions to bring a better yield have helped Sotheby’s achieve the second biggest quarterly profits in the company’s history.

THE UK has almost drawn level with the United States as the world’s premier art market by value, according to the latest report commissioned by The European Fine Art Foundation.

BEIJING-based auction house China Guardian has published record sales results for 2009.

IT should be a brighter year ahead for trade according to the 2009 LAPADA Membership Survey.

A SURVEY of members by the British Antique Dealers Association has found that late payments as a result of the recession are causing a significant number of them cash-flow problems.

CHRISTIE’S have announced a 24 per cent year-on-year fall in sales for 2009 to £2.1bn.