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Art and antiques news from 2000

In 2000 Bonhams merged with classic car auctioneer Brooks.

Sothebys.com was launched in a $40 million joint venture with Amazon.

Christie's CEO Christopher Davidge left and was replaced by Edward Dolman. News later emerges that the firm had colluded with Sotheby's to fix rates of commission between 1993 and 1999.

Salerooms battle on despite floods

06 November 2000

Once again torrential rain and flooding has wreaked havoc across the country causing disruption to the antiques trade.

BAMF keeps up the pressure on the EU over droit de suite

31 October 2000

ANTHONY Browne, chairman of the British Art Federation, has just led a delegation of art dealers to Strasbourg to lobby the European Parliament further on the artists’ resale levy, droit de suite.

Olympia review: design fair to go

31 October 2000

UK: ANDREW Morris, chief executive of Earls Court/Olympia in London and head of the company’s exhibitions organising arm, Clarion Events, has revealed that a thorough review of his art and antiques division will be unveiled in February.

Folio collection of humorous and satirical caricatures.

31 October 2000

The most startling result produced by the Allan Cuthbertson sale, Bonhams, London 3-4 October was an eight times estimate bid of £34,000 from Andrew Edmonds for a five volume set of The Caricature Magazine, or Mirror of Mirth.

Set of 12 Elizabethan lion sejant affronte spoons

31 October 2000

UK: The most comprehensive and perhaps the finest collection of early silver spoons to appear on the market since the 1960s went under the hammer at Woolley and Wallis in Salisbury last Wednesday (October 25).

Egon Schiele’s oil on canvas Portrait of the Art Dealer Guido Arnot.

24 October 2000

LONDON: Highlight of the German and Austrian series from the Marvin & Janet Fishman Collection was Egon Schiele’s oil on canvas Portrait of the Art Dealer Guido Arnot, 4ft 7in x 3ft 7in (1.40 x 1.09m), signed and dated 1918 which sold at Sotheby’s in London for £6.5m (plus premium), more than twice its top estimate.

Bidders send a mixed message in 20th century German sales

24 October 2000

The market for 20th century German art proved dramatically selective last week when the much-promoted Marvin & Janet Fishman Collection came under the hammer at Sotheby’s on the evening of October 18.

Gentili does it

24 October 2000

In these days of raging prices for anything remotely decorative in the world of antiques, it is not often that you find something early, unusual and pleasing to the eye for little more than £500.

Lawsuit threat to EBay vision of ecommerce

24 October 2000

SIX claimants have refiled a case against online sales giant EBay that, if successful, could deal a fatal blow to the company’s global status and have huge implications for Internet sales worldwide.

Law day on looted art

24 October 2000

THE Art-Law Centre of Switzerland is holding an international symposium, entitled Claims for the Restitution of Looted Art, at the Museum of Art and History in Geneva on November 10.

Offices instead of salerooms as restructure continues

17 October 2000

UK: Phillips have announced the closure of two more of their provincial salerooms, Guildford and Ringwood, as part of their ongoing and extensive restructuring programme.

Chinese blue and white ewer

17 October 2000

UK: The unexpected crowd puller at Lyon & Turnbull’s 509-lot sale on October 8 was this Wanli period (1573-1619) Chinese blue and white ewer estimated at £400-500

Experts gather for Internet day

17 October 2000

UK: ART & Antiques on the Internet is the title of a one-day conference being staged at the Royal Institution on Thursday October 26 by the Institute of Art and Law and the RICS

Amazon merge Website with sothebys.com

17 October 2000

IT WILL simplify sales say Sotheby’s. Within the next month Sotheby’s will be merging their two online ventures, sothebys.com and sothebys.amazon.com under the sothebys.com banner.

The cutting edge of 18th century style…

17 October 2000

UK: Scholars probably know less about the makers of 18th century caddies and knife boxes than the little they have gleaned thus far regarding the makers of Georgian furniture.

Stone model of a recumbent cow

09 October 2000

UK: THE Thames-side meadows at Christopher Gibbs’ Manor House in Oxfordshire contained a number of pieces of classical statuary with important provenances, but none proved so valuable as this unheralded stone model of a recumbent cow.

Scaphe dial and astrolabe

09 October 2000

LONDON: Renaissance period combined scaphe dial and astrolabe made by Arsenius of Louvain, dated 1563.

Diana Brooks pleads guilty to collusion in US anti-trust case

09 October 2000

$45m fine for Sotheby’s but five years to pay: Diana ‘Dede’ Brooks, former president and chief executive of Sotheby’s, has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan Federal Court to price-fixing with Christie’s between 1993 and 1999.

Appeal Court sets precedent on auction reserve

09 October 2000

UK: THE Court of Appeal has set a precedent under case law which forces auctioneers to sell to the highest bidder where a reserve has not been set, regardless of how low the winning bid is.

Paris plays host to major art and antiques forum

09 October 2000

FRANCE: RARELY can so many leading lights in the international art and antiques business have been gathered in the same room as happened at the luxurious George V hotel in Paris on Tuesday, October 3.