Europe

This Sèvres porcelain basket-shaped centrepiece was one of the highlights in a sale held by Ostantix Auctions (25% buyer’s premium) in Ostend on September 3-4.

With the Olympics over and the new season well under way, there is plenty of activity in the French art market.

Prestigious Italian fair includes UK firms among the strong international contingent attending this year

Studies include caricature-like portraits which were an early preoccupation of the young artist

A single-owner collection of 37 pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage formed part of Sworders’ (25% buyer’s premium) Design sale.

The largest private collection of Louis Vuitton trunks ever to come to auction was sold by Christie’s Paris (26% buyer’s premium) earlier this year.

Blessed with a classical education, a gift for drawing and his father’s fortune, the English militiaman and antiquary Francis Grose (1731-91) is best known for his Views of Antiquities in England and Wales, published in several volumes between 1772-76.

Once damned with faint praise, watches from Cartier’s Bond Street boutique are now winning fans among collectors for their adventurous case designs

Themed exhibitions at this year’s Parcours des Mondes link ethnographic art with Surrealist movement

Dealer who has run a major Irish fair for 35 years feels Georgian furniture is starting to rise in value

This year, Munich auction house Ketterer (32/27/22% buyer’s premium) is marking its 70th anniversary and the evening sale provided plenty of opportunities for celebration.

Viennese auction house Tiberius (27% buyer’s premium) recently sold the inventory of Laudon Castle, a privately owned, moated baroque residence on the outskirts of the Austrian capital.

Recent sales show the appetite for Chinese art from bidders with deep pockets is not at all diminished

Nagel’s (29.5% buyer’s premium) first sale dedicated to Fine Arts and Luxury in Stuttgart obviously caught the mood of the bidders.

Instantly recognisable and with a perfect provenance, a painting by Salvador Dalí (1904-89) more than lived up to its expectations at a sale held by Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer (22% buyer’s premium).

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in interest for works by Adolph Menzel (see also ATG No 2649), whose works often go way above the guides and achieve unexpected six-figure prices.