News

Ninety-one-year-old John Werner Kluge is the stuff of the American Dream – a German immigrant who amassed his fortune in the States buying radio and television stations.

Christie’s have announced £1.8bn ($3.2bn) in global sales for 2005, the highest total in the firm’s history and more than 30 per cent up on 2004.

Sales at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris rose 16 per cent in 2005 to €414m (£280m), but firms based elsewhere in the city also continued to increase their market share.

Buoyed up by an increasing number of consignments from England, Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull are opening an office in central London.

...and I’ll fight it in the courts if I have to

ST James’s gallery Frost and Reed, founded in 1808, have undergone a management shake-up and will have an increased focus on Contemporary art.

Helped by a £2.6m windfall, Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis emerged from 2005 as the largest-grossing UK provincial saleroom.