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Art and antiques news from 1999

In 1999 as the bill to reform French auction law was delayed yet again it was christened the 'Loi Godot' - everyone was waiting for it.

The Europe-wide implementation of droit de suite was also shelved for the time being following lobbying by the British Art Market Federation and the personal intervention of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Auctioneer Phillips was bought by Bernard Arnault’s luxury goods group Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Members of the Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers voted in favour of a move to be absorbed into the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

French and German doubts on resale rights

20 December 1999

EU: BRITAIN’S opponents on the droit de suite issue were in retreat last week with the emergence of telling evidence from France and Germany (the two main champions of artists’ resale rights) that the levy is both damaging to art markets and of little benefit to living artists.

Queen Anne table sells for £58,000

20 December 1999

UK: THE table was hotly contested by top London dealers at Ewbank’s rooms in Send, Surrey on December 9, 1999, with Fulham Road dealer Michael Lipitch emerging as the top bidder at £58,000.

Dealers hit by end of VAT loophole

20 December 1999

UK: CUSTOMS and Excise have closed a tax loophole leaving UK art dealers with a hefty VAT bill to pay in future.

Two new Paris premises

20 December 1999

FRANCE: CHRISTIE’S France will start the new Millennium by relocating from Rue Paul-Baudry to new premises on Avenue Matignon, just off the Champs-Elysées and some 500 yards from Sotheby’s base on Rue du Faubourg St-Honoré.

Bonhams realise an American dream

20 December 1999

UK: THE exceptional levels of demand recently seen for American pictures impacted on the London salerooms on the evening of December 14 when Bonhams achieved a record £1.4m for Richmond Hill in the Summer of 1862 by the Hudson River School painter Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900).

Droit de suite in the balance

13 December 1999

EU: THE FATE of the UK’s flourishing Contemporary and Modern art trade hung in the balance last week after the Government had continued its steadfast opposition to the introduction of droit de suite by frustrating an attempt to push through the directive at the Internal Market Council meeting.

Christie’s move in Paris

13 December 1999

FRANCE: CHRISTIE’S will move into their new Paris headquarters at 9 Avenue Matignon at the centre of the art and antiques district of the 8th arrondissement on January 3.

Carracci curries favour at Pitchal

13 December 1999

FRANCE: THIS anonymous oil-on-paper portrait by Annibale or Agostino Carracci sold 'for around £60,000' at Virginie Pitchal’s Mirror of the Soul exhibition at her Left Bank gallery.

London doubles Impressionist takings

13 December 1999

The international market for Impressionist and Modern art saw further consolidation last week in London when Sotheby’s and Christie’s Part I and Part II sales turned over a combined total of £86.3m, some 45 per cent up on the £47.8m achieved at the equivalent sales last year.

ISVA opt for RICS ‘agenda for change’

13 December 1999

UK: THE Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers will be absorbed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors following an overwhelming vote in favour of the move by ISVA members.

Call for more cash for acquisitions

06 December 1999

UK: TWO-thirds of the items recommended for export licence deferrals by the Export Review Committee during 1998/9 ended up being sold abroad anyway, their annual report reveals.

Christie’s deny plans to get rid of dealers

06 December 1999

UK: CHRISTIE’S have denied rumours that they plan to give notices to quit to their gallery leaseholders in Ryder and Bury Streets, St James’s, so that they can redevelop the premises.

Lowry sets new paintings record

06 December 1999

UK: THE Professional Football Association was the successful bidder for L.S. Lowry’s crowd scene Going to the Match at Sotheby’s London last Wednesday, setting the record for the highest auction price for a Modern British painting at £1.75m

Eames sculpture sets world record

06 December 1999

US: AT Christie’s East in New York on November 27, in a sale which reinforced 20th century design as a major market mover, this moulded plywood sculpture by Ray and Charles Eames, dated 1943 and 3ft 11/2in (95cm) high, established a world record price of $330,000 (£206,250) for the designers, selling to a specialist Eames collector.

Ancestor of the Internet

06 December 1999

UK: International bidders tuned into proceedings at Canterbury Auction Galleries on October 2, 1999 in the prospect of acquiring one of the earliest ship-to-shore receivers, illustrated right, manufactured in 1908 by the founding father of commercial radio communication – Guglielmo Marconi.

Fairs deal to boost international trade

06 December 1999

UK: CENTRE Exhibitions, who organise the Antiques For Everyone fairs at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, and the top Irish fairs organiser Louis O’ Sullivan are collaborating on a plan to internationalise both the NEC fairs and the Irish trade.

Next step in bid for road sign symbol

30 November 1999

UK: THE campaign to establish a nationwide symbol for the antiques trade continues apace, despite a series of setbacks at the hands of local and national government departments.

Not just a lot of hot air

30 November 1999

UK: PARIS salons were well known for flatulence in conversation. After each manned flight of giant balloons from the gardens of Versailles during the late 18th and 19th centuries, young men who wished to sound like scientists would earnestly debate whether hydrogen gas or hot air allowed the better flight.

Botticelli scoop for Scottish gallery

30 November 1999

UK: A RARE catch indeed, the most important painting of its period in a British private collection, Botticelli’s Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, c.1490-1500, pictured right, has been acquired by the National Gallery of Scotland from the 10th Earl of Wemyss and March, who was about to sell it to America.

Silesian covered goblet fetches £98,000

30 November 1999

UK: AN international mix of private collectors, dealers and institutions turned out to bid for an old and celebrated collection of European glass formed by the late Dr. Otto Dettmers of Bremen when it went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in London last week on November 23.