France

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.

AFTER buying two of the most famous flea-markets in Paris, the Duke of Westminster’s property company and their partners say they will undertake new ways of promoting the historic sites.

18th century French furniture was much in evidence on both sides of the Channel at the end of last year. It was the mainstay of two single-owner collections offered at the height of the pre-Christmas season.

FOR the second week in a row a Government U-turn has dealt the British art and antiques industry a bodyblow – but the latest move is far more serious than last week’s SIPPs debacle.

Who has the resale right? The artist holding copyright of their work or a qualifying body to whom they have assigned the right under the regulations, such as a charity. Until January 1, 2010, the right only applies if the artist is living.

BY IVAN MACQUISTEN Droit de Suite, the much-feared extra levy on art sales, cannot now be introduced in the UK on January 1 next year.

BY IVAN MACQUISTENROBERT Brooks has been nailing his colours to the mast in more ways than one in the past week.

A French court has upheld the right of Paris auction firm Artcurial to use the name F. Tajan in their full title Artcurial Briest-Le Fur-Poulain-F. Tajan.

France’s Auctioneers’ Association SYMEV is to stage the first-ever Journées Nationales des Ventes aux Enchères (National Auction Weekend) on November 19-20.

INITIAL Government responses to recommendations made during the consultation on droit de suite are encouraging for the art market.

François Tajan, who quit as chairman of Tajan SA, the firm founded by his father Jacques, at the end of March, has joined Paris rivals ArtCurial.

A SNATCHED moment frozen in time thanks to the lucky presence of a camera... or was it?

The French art and antiques trade is growing increasingly concerned about heavy-handed police tactics following the recent €15m embezzlement scandal surrounding an employee at a leading French bank.

The Paris Biennale is set to move from the Carrousel du Louvre back to the Grand Palais, its historic venue, for its next outing in 2006 after Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanöe unexpectedly vetoed plans for an underground car-park beneath the Palais that would have delayed its reopening until 2008 or 2009.

A GATHERING of Europe’s leading art market professionals is calling on the European Commission to delay extending the worst effects of Droit de Suite after 2012 in the UK.

CERAMICS SALES IN FRANCE £1 = €1.44A collection of drink-related objects and another devoted to Italian Renaissance maiolica were two very different single-owner properties on offer on the same day at the Paris auction house ArtCurial (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) last month.

THE added tax burden of Droit de Suite, which comes in at the beginning of next year, could be far worse than feared.

TWO long-term directors of auctioneers Rosebery's are to leave southeast London to pursue a career offering antiques themed breaks from a Pyrenean château.

A SMALL Renoir portrait painted in 1913, with an estimated value of €170,000-200,000 (£120,000-140,000), was stolen from the Tajan premises in Paris shortly before it was to be offered at a sale on March 31.

Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), the First World War leader known as The Tiger, and also famous as the editor of L’Aurore, who published Zola’s J’Accuse at the height of the Dreyfus Affair, was the subject of an unusual sale at Osenat (15% buyer’s premium) in Fontainebleau on February 13.