News

THE Australian art and antiques industry has formed its own version of the British Art Market Federation following what it calls “several years of uncertainty in the Australian art market”.

SOTHEBY’S made a profit in the first three months of 2011 – that profit may have been only $2.4m, but it compares with a loss of $2.2m for the same period last year.

THE latest sales of Contemporary art in New York produced some solid results, but buyers were selective and not all the projected highlights fulfilled vendors’ expectations.

THE Fifth Annual Art Investment Conference will take place on May 27 at the London Business School and this year’s theme is Art Investment in the New Information Age. It will focus on the impact of increasing transparency on the global art market and how to adapt.

THE contstant jockeying for position in the Australian art and antiques auctions market continues with the appointment of Mark Fraser as chairman of Bonhams Australia with immediate effect.

IN a series of high-profile auctions in New York that saw an underperforming run of Impressionist and Modern art sales, the eye-catching price of the week by some distance came for a 19th century historical genre painting.

"The best piece of furniture sold in Shropshire in a decade," enthused Shrewsbury auctioneer Jeremy Lamond of Halls.