International

Austrian saleroom im Kinsky has hit out at the “biased reporting” and “aggressive reaction” to its decision to offer a Nazi-looted painting at auction. With heightened media coverage about the consignment, the portrait of a Dutch merchant by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613-1670) was eventually withdrawn shortly before it was due to be offered in Vienna at the end of last month.

A relatively unfamiliar name in Nordic works is under the spotlight at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen in its Nordic Design auction on Thursday, June 8.

Francis Picabia (1879-1953) famously declared that he wanted to change his ideas “as often as one would change one’s shirt”, and he embraced many different artistic styles throughout his life.

A £100 Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund sword, one of 23 awarded to captains who fought at Trafalgar, sold for $235,000 (£173,000), plus 15% buyer’s premium, to one of six phone bidders competing at James D Julia in Fairfield, Maine, on April 11.

A Spanish oil billed as an early work by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) sold for €8m (£7m) at the Madrid auctioneers Abalarte on April 25.

An attempt by collecting agencies and copyright organisations to establish a global treaty on Artist’s Resale Right has been met with strong opposition from international trade bodies.

A rare English humpback carriage clock is coming up for sale at Dr Crott in Frankfurt on May 6. The 6in (16cm) high calendar timepiece with phases of the moon and an English lever escapement was manufactured in the 1890s by Jump of London.

Ancient art dealer Barakat Gallery has opened an extra US location in West Hollywood to the international galleries run by Fayez Barakat.

This flock of five sheep, Nouveaux Moutons, by the popular French designer François-Xavier Lalanne, will feature in Palm Beach Modern Auction’s two-session sale of around 500 lots on May 6 in Palm Beach.

One of the highlights of Mossgreen’s sale of Decorative Arts to be held in Armadale, Melbourne, on May 8-9 is this 11in (26.5cm) diameter 17th century terrestrial table globe with its original mahogany cradle.

Among a handful of pieces of Gallé French art glass in a sale of decorative arts and design to be held by Tessier Sarrou & Associés at Drouot on May 4 is this example of the designer’s skills in the medium.

The second TEFAF New York event opens this week, running from May 4-8 at the Park Avenue Armory. It is the second event that TEFAF has staged in the Big Apple in the past 12 months, the first of which was its inaugural ‘Fall’ edition last October. Whereas that event focused on art from antiquity to 1920, this edition features modern and contemporary art and design.

Described as one of the quiet glories of southern France, the ancient town of Pézenas is set in the Languedoc Roussillon region, all rocky outcrops, pines and vines.

A Russian ceramic homage to Catherine the Great is among the highlights at Schloss Ahlden’s sale on May 6-7 in Ahlden, Lower Saxony. The impressive 22in (55cm) high bronze-mounted porcelain ensemble in the form of a temple dates to the 1780s or ’90s and is estimated at €48,000. It was produced by the Gardner factory in Moscow, which was founded in 1765.