 PARIS, FRANCE DIGGING UP THE PAST Snap up a mammoth skeleton (est. €150,000–€180,000) or an Oviraptor philoceratops dinosaur egg (€4,000– €5,000) at Christie’s’ extraordinary palaeontology auction in Paris on 16 April. Also available is a bezoar (est. €15,000– €25,000), a pearl formed in the stomach of herbivores and swallowed by Habsburg princes as a cure for melancholy.  LONDON, ENGLAND CALL TO ARMS Weaponry is the order of the day at Bonhams’ Antique Arms and Armour auction in Knightsbridge on 4 April. A unique 1625 aikuchi sword, which adapts a German blade to the Japanese style (est. €2,200–€3,000), and also an excellent pair of 19th-century Balkan 25-bore flintlock pistols, complete with original silver-gilt stocks and constellation engraving (est. €5,900– €7,400), are on offer.  LONDON, ENGLAND RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AT SOTHEBY’S Sotheby’s will hold its third annual combined auction of fine and applied works of Russian art on 16 and 17 April. Highlights include Constantinople at Dawn (1851) by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky and Mikhail Nesterov’s Vision of St Sergius When a Child (1922), both expected to fetch €2.9m–€4.4m. An outstanding selection of Fabergé items will be offered, including an extremely rare miniature empire-style armchair (est. €1.4–€2.2m). Five hundred lots are expected to bring in a total of €60m. A KICK UP THE ARTS Auction houses are sending ripples of unease through the European art world by diversifying into selling works to dealers. Christie’s’ upcoming purchase of the London-based commercial dealer Haunch of Venison, which also has branches in Zurich, marks the first high-profile auction house purchase of an art dealer in the UK, while last year, Sotheby’s bought the Netherlands’ Noortman Master Paintings for €41.44m. In the past, collectors bought from dealers and dealers in turn bought from auction houses; art fairs operated as the dealers’ way of getting their own back on artists who bypassed them to sell straight to auction houses. At last month’s European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, however, Sotheby’s and Christie’s had stands for the first time – the acquisition of dealerships gives auction houses access to art events such as this. Industry experts predict that auction houses may push out galleries to become the artists’ agents of the future. |