France

A new auction record for a medieval work of art was established at Christie's Paris

In the wider world, the photographer Nadar (Gaspard Félix Tournachon) is best known for the fact that it was in his former studio on the Boulevard des Capucines that the Impressionists held their first group exhibition in 1874.

THE history of France’s famous Sleeper Car Company was commemorated in a single-owner sale at Christie’s in Paris last month.

This week sees the launch of Figaro Enchères, a joint venture between ATG Media and French national newspaper Le Figaro.

CLAUDE Aguttes, the dynamic auctioneer with salerooms at Neuilly and Lyons, has been named president of a new conseil de surveillance or supervisory board to oversee the running of the Hôtel Drouot.

FRENCH auction houses have won their battle to conduct private treaty sales.

Making a record price for any Venetian view painting at auction, Francesco Guardi's (1712-1793) monumental View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon sold for £23.8m hammer at Sotheby's Old Master evening sale on July 7.

THE man who oversaw the French Revolution's 'reign of terror' but who finally met his end at the guillotine himself, Maximilien de Robespierre, was back on the block again at the end of last month as Sotheby's auctioned an extraordinary cache of documents in Paris.

FRENCH auction houses have toughened their stance on Chinese bidders after a series of well-publicised problems with non-payment.

THE mammoth, 875-lot, three-day sale from the collections of the Château de Gourdon staged by Christie's in Paris closed last week closed having raised a hammer total of €35.1m (£31.9m).

A ROW has erupted after another attempt by South American interests to intervene in a tribal art sale in Paris.

A PIECE from a celebrated but elusive porcelain service that turned up at the latest sale at Aguttes in Paris understandably caused great excitement.

SOTHEBY'S have announced that they are to make Paris their European centre for sales of 20th century decorative art and design and photographs.

A SALE of Olympic memorabilia at Vassy-Jalenques SARL in Paris on February 3 includes this rare official Olympic torch from the 1952 Helsinki summer games.

AUCTION turnover figures for Paris in 2010 show the city’s three major firms – Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Artcurial – gaining market share at the expense of crisis-ridden Drouot.

THE ten Parisian dealers hoping to push Old Masters into the limelight in the French capital have confirmed their decision to hold a fair dedicated to the genre this autumn with dates and details.

A SALE at the Hotel Drouot in Paris devoted to minor works by Picasso was called off at the last minute because of controversy over provenance.

TEN leading Parisian Old Master galleries have announced plans to launch a select new fair in the French capital next year.

PARIS furniture dealer Hervé Aaron was removed as President of France’s Syndicat National des Antiquaires (SNA) at its AGM on October 25 – to be replaced by the man he ousted two years ago, Christian Deydier.

THE spectre of a nationalised Drouot haunted delegates at the Annual Congress of French auctioneers’ union SYMEV, held at Artcurial’s Champs-Elysées premises earlier this month.