France

Auction firms in France followed a more traditional course in 2023 according to the latest figures.

As well as being an artist’s model and gallery owner who founded the museum dedicated to the work of the sculptor Aristide Maillol, Dina Vierny was also known as a collector of antique dolls.

A piece of furniture produced for the French king heads back to former repository now open to the public

It was in the hope of saving on the huge sums spent procuring works of art from abroad that Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s minister of finance, began inviting craftsmen to work at the Gobelins royal manufactory on the outskirts of Paris.

In one of the last auctions to take place at Drouot in 2023, a newly discovered portrait by Jean-Honoré Fragonard was pursued to €2.5m (£2.17m) at Boisgirard-Antonini (30% buyer’s premium).

Very much the highest price in a recent sale held by Beaussant Lefèvre (28% buyer’s premium) at Drouot was the €95,000 (£82,610) paid for a rare Gallé glass vase.

Among the star attractions at the 60-lot evening sale of works from the collection of Hubert Guerrand-Hermès (1940-2016) at Sotheby’s Paris was a carved and regilded Louis XVI chair.

The market for Lucie Rie ceramics continues to reach new heights.

Louis de Bayser of the Paris drawings dealership Galerie de Bayser is the president of FAB Paris, the fair organised by Agence d’Événements Culturels (AEC), which also runs the Salon du Dessin.

Second edition of the event involving two combined fairs benefits from extra space at new venue

Pictured here are two paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) appearing on the French auction scene this season within the space of a month - one sold, the other upcoming.

On December 12 in Paris the auction firm Pescheteau-Badin will be offering this writing table that belonged to Louis XV.

A piece of French cabinetmaking with a provenance to Louis XV came up for sale on November 25 at SGL enchères (26.4% buyer’s premium inc tax).

Collection from unnamed vendor supplies some of the highest prices in a sale at the Drouot centre

Although this small oil sketch that surfaced at Oxio Paris (24% buyer’s premium) in Saint-Ouen on November 19 was catalogued as by ‘Howard Hancock’, the signature is clearly that of David Howard Hitchcock (1861-1943).

On December 8 Beaussant-Lefèvre is holding a sale that will feature a number of examples of Gallé glass including this early piece.

The second instalment of FAB Paris, the fair resulting from the merger of Fine Arts Paris and La Biennale, will be staged this November but for the first time it moves from its previous home at the Carrousel du Louvre.