Switzerland

Old Masters and post-Impressionist paintings, vintage luggage and the almost inevitable Asian artefacts all appeared among the best-sellers in the recent round of auctions held across Germany and Switzerland.

Axel Plambeck (b.1936) was CEO of a re-insurance company and in his spare time he collected vintage luggage and picnic sets.

A cluster of new fairs is planned in Europe this year.

A selection of stand-out lots from sales in Paris, Pennsylvania and Zurich.

Two exceptionally rare celestial globes or spheres have made their mark in Geneva and London salerooms in recent times – and on the same day.

A dispute over two 4th century BC Grecian vases offered at Frieze Masters in London by a Swiss dealer is the latest case highlighting the complexity of the ownership of antiquities.

A painting of a violin player holding a wine glass by Dirck Van Baburen will be offered at Koller’s upcoming auction in Zurich.

The unexpected highlight of a recent sale at Beurret & Bailly (20% buyer’s premium) in Basel was a work by the Finnish artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) which had been considered lost for over a century.

For previous generations of artist jewellers, from René Lalique to Andrew Grima, retail sales and private commissions were everything. Typically it was only much later in the collecting lifecycle, after a period of posthumous reassessment and rediscovery, that their work appeared at auction with any great regularity.

Bailly et Beuret’s next auction series takes place in the Swiss city on June 21. On offer are over 460 lots divided between four catalogues and covering works from the 14th to 19th centuries, Swiss and contemporary art.

Estimated at CHF9000-12,000, a panel painted in the manner of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) sold for CHF700,000 (£564,500) at Galartis SA in Crissier, Lausanne on May 5.

Balthasar Van der Ast (c.1593-1657) is considered by many to be one of the most important Dutch still-life painters of the 17th century.