Christie's two-day, £18.97m London sale of the Wildenstein collection on December 14 and 15 was preceded by a smaller €13.57m (£9.23m) single-session sale of the Rossignol Collection at Artcurial in Paris on December 13. Both produced strong prices for the best pieces, none stronger than the €6m (£4.1m) paid for Rossignol's Louis XV Sèvres and ormolu-mounted bureau plat, pictured here, at the Artcurial sale. The price is the highest paid at auction in France last year and the highest auction price ever paid for an object in France.
A €6m French auction record
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.