London Eye: February 2013

In any event, when Robertson finally consigned the so-called Robertson Collection to the Woking auction — 45 lots of letters, diaries, photographs, ephemera and a few small oil paintings (many of them "canceled" by Bacon using a box-cutter) — the haul, offered by auctioneer Chris Ewbank in separate lots, realized over £1 million.

Now another chapter is about to be written in the annals of discarded Bacons. Many years ago, Lewis Todd, a Cambridge-based commercial artist, acquired some secondhand canvases from Heffers, a UK art materials supplier, seemingly unaware of the importance of what was on the back. That turned out to be nothing less than some of Francis Bacon's studies for his famous "Screaming Pope" series.

Todd was told he could use the canvases as long as he cut them into pieces. Those fragments have also now been consigned for sale, and once again Chris Ewbank will be wielding the gavel on March 20. The consignment is "conservatively estimated" to make around £100,000 ($152,000), although the reception that greeted the Robertson collection suggests that "conservative" could turn out to be something of an understatement. In November 2012, Francis Bacon’s Untitled (Pope) of 1954 sold in a New York auction for a record £18.7 million ($28.4 million). Sadly, Todd died in 2006 and so did not live to see his old canvases make auction history. Auction Central News will be at the Woking sale to witness what promises to be another remarkable moment in the bizarre history of sliced Bacon.

The UK's provincial fine art salerooms are full of surprises, as the Bacon story confirms. Not everything has to sell for a six-figure price to be newsworthy, however, although the connection with a celebrity or a famous person clearly helps. Tennants of Leyburn, North Yorkshire, are arguably the most important UK auction room north of London and their regular sales often deliver notable prices. On Feb. 22, they held a sale of cameras and photographic equipment that included a fascinating set of 135 magic lantern slides taken from photographs by Frank Hurley documenting Ernest Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic from 1914-1917. The images were used in the illustrated book South with Endurance published in 2001, which perhaps helped to push them above an estimate of £2,000-3,000 to a hammer price of £4,500 ($6,830).

Meanwhile, Tennants' book sale on Feb. 27 included a volume that for many adults will be remembered with the same fondness that young people reserve for the Harry Potter series today — Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons. The first edition that appeared here, dated 1930 (it was still popular in the 1960s and 1970s), retained its dust jacket and was in excellent condition. Originally priced at 7s 6d (the equivalent of 37 pence sterling in today's currency), the hammer fell at £7,000 ($10,640), a price that may send many adults scampering into their attics to search for their own long-neglected copies. Condition is everything, however.

Down at the other end of the country, Live Auctioneers client Canterbury Auction Rooms enjoyed good prices across most categories of their Feb. 12 sale. Among the paintings was a small oil on panel by Antonietta Brandeis (1849-1910) depicting the Piazza San Marco (View of St. Mark's Square, Venice) looking toward the cathedral. Signed and enclosed in a deep gilt moulded and swept frame, it was contested past an estimate of £1,200-1,600 to a hammer price of £8,800 ($13,375). A few moments later a signed oil on canvas study of a seated fox terrier by John Emms (1843-1912) fetched £4,600 ($6,840) against an estimate of £2,500-3,500. Finally, among the watches was a good 19th century silver and tortoise-shell covered triple-cased verge pocket watch by Edward Prior, London, the case hallmarked for 1866. Prior, who is recorded working in London from 1800-1868 was regarded as a maker of some repute and was especially noted for producing watches like this one for the Turkish market. That small nugget of information may have propelled it way over the low estimate, the hammer falling at £3,100 ($4,700).

A dozen or so years ago, Internet entrepreneurs were struggling to convince the conservative auction industry of the potential benefits of embracing new technology. Today, most auctioneers are enthusiastic devotees and it's easy to see why. Barely a week goes by without further evidence of the benefits of circulating your auction catalogs electronically and bringing the global market into the saleroom via internet bidding. East Yorkshire auctioneers Dee Atkinson and Harrison, provided us with the most recent instance of this at their general sale of antiques and fine art on Feb. 15. Hiding among the lots of metalware was a lot cataloged simply as "An Eastern copper hanging bowl of boat shaped form chased with bands of stylized flower heads and fitted with suspension chain, 9 1/2 inches wide, together with a cast brass figure of an Eastern deity, 7 1/2 inches high." The poor Eastern deity — which was not illustrated in the catalog — may have been somewhat overlooked by the auctioneers, but thanks to new technology the trade spotted it and knew what it was. The illustration shown here offers more than a hint that this was no ordinary "cast brass figure" a suggestion confirmed when a derisory estimate of £30-£40 was demolished by a winning bid of £11,100 ($16,870).

And finally a brief note about one of the most important European fine art fairs happening in March. The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht needs no introduction since it is now widely acknowledged as one of the most important fine art fairs in the world. TEFAF boasts a range of historical material that makes the numerous contemporary events seem somewhat shallow by comparison. It is hard to summarize the TEFAF experience. Suffice to say that it always feels like a privilege to be exposed to so many museum-quality works of art across so many sectors of the market. Happily the Old Master category — which originally gave rise to the fair in the mid-1980s — remains one of TEFAF's core strengths. Although not exactly typical of the quality on offer, since it is extraordinary by any measure, the masterpiece by Orazio Gentilleschi (1563-1639) — David Contemplating the Head of Goliath — on the stand of London's Weiss Gallery, is a good example of why it is worth making the trip to the Dutch city. Unpublished and having been in private collections in France and Belgium since the 1930s, its market freshness and historical importance have resulted an asking price of around 8 million euros ($10.4 million).

Although not perhaps of quite same historical significance, another work on the Weiss stand this year is a recently rediscovered work by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first president of London's Royal Academy. Study for the Uffizi Self-Portrait was painted around 1774-5 after the Grand Duke of Tuscany asked Reynolds to contribute to the gallery of self-portraits that formed part of the Medici Collection at the Uffizi in Florence. Keen to be seen as an intellectual, Reynolds portrayed himself in the scarlet robes and black velvet cap of an Oxford University Doctor of Civil Law, an honorary title of which he was immensely proud. Given Reynolds importance in the annals of 18th-century English painting, the asking price of 285,000 euros ($373,100) seems eminently reasonable. It is just the sort of picture that brings museum curators from around the world to Maastricht seeking to fill gaps in their collections.

Before the TEFAF fair gets under way, however, many international dealers and collectors will be looking to stop over in London for the British Antique Dealers' Fair (the BADA Fair), which takes place at the Duke of York's Square in Chelsea from March 13. Rather than preview it here, Auction Central News will be at the fair and we will report the highlights next month.

London Eye: January 2013

Of course, it is in the nature of art fairs that once inside you are so distracted by the works on display that the broader environment seems to disappear. The Watercolours and Works on Paper Fair is a somewhat sedate event attracting an older demographic who appreciate its mix of the traditional and the acceptably modern (without too much of that curious stuff called Contemporary Art). Indeed it was so sedate that one visitor was seen snoozing happily on a vacant bench.

One of the more reliable ways to gauge how much business is being done at an art fair is to chat to the men who do the packing and wrapping. "It's been nonstop since the fair opened," said the man in the wrapping booth as he took a well-earned rest. "And it's only the first day." This was not, however, the message of all the dealers. London dealer Duncan Miller, who specializes in Scottish artists, said trade was slow. "It's difficult. It has been for some time. You need a certain amount of luck at these events." It was the first time Mr. Miller had shown at the fair but he was hopeful things would pick up. He had already sold one large mixed media work by the Edinburgh School painter Ann Oram. When we visited the stand on the opening day there was much interest in Oram's Garden Still Life, which was priced at £8,500 ($13,460).

Elsewhere at the fair, London-based painter and printmaker Natasha Kumar was enjoying a lot of interest in her vibrant prints inspired by her travels in India. Her Artshouse stand, located at the entrance to the fair, was thronged with visitors admiring her Holy Cow screenprint series, examples of which were priced at £1400.

Turning to the UK auction circuit, Yorkshire-based LiveAuctioneers clients Tennants held another of their popular "Country House" sales this month, which included a few surprises. A pair of Italian walnut three-drawer chests had been estimated at just £300-400, largely on account of their seriously shabby condition. The candid catalog description itemized their faded color, "various worm holes," splits and missing handles, although on the plus side "the drawers operate well." Clearly there was some work to be done, but they were unusual enough and showed sufficient potential for restoration to attract a bid of £3,200 ($5,050). Meanwhile, Tennants' January sale of arms, armor and militaria included a rare Colt First Model Dragoon six-shot percussion revolver, with a New York City stamp, the cylinder bearing traces of an engraved Texas Ranger and Indian scene. It came with its original leather holster and was in good enough condition to beat at estimate of £2,500-3,500, eventually selling for £4,600 ($7,260).

Coincidentally, the gun is at the center of another American-themed event in the coming weeks as the American Museum in Britain prepares to stage an exhibition entitled "Gangsters & Gunslingers: The Good, The Bad and the Memorabilia." The exhibition, which runs from March 23 to Nov. 3 at the museum's premises at Claverton Manor in Bath, has been loaned by Channel Islands-based Americana collector David Gainsborough Roberts. The exhibition's theme centers on America's outlaw heroes and brings together memorabilia from what the curators describe as "two defining chapters that shaped America’s national identity" — the Wild West from the mid-1860s to the late 1880s, and the wild years of the Prohibition/Depression era of the 1920s and early 1930s.

American visitors to the UK over the summer will have good reason to swing by the American Museum in Britain as they head down to the windswept beaches and rain-soaked holiday resorts of the West Country, for there are treasures galore on show. Highlights include the watch retrieved by souvenir hunters from the wrist of Clyde Barrow after he and Bonnie Parker had been ambushed and mercilessly riddled with bullets by federal agents. Clyde had not, perhaps, been wearing his bullet-proof vest that day, which features in the exhibition as does a silver cigarette case owned by notorious Chicago gangster Al Capone. Rather more grisly is the death mask of Depression-era outlaw John Dillinger, which faithfully records the exit wound made by the federal agent's bullet that killed him outside a Chicago cinema in 1934.

The next big event on the horizon for many of the more up-market members of the London fine art trade will be the European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht from March 15 to 24. This is arguably the most prestigious fine art fair in the world and is generally regarded as one of the few fairs that, despite being obviously a commercial venture, places equal emphasis on the aesthetic aspect of art as on economic considerations. This year the fair will include a special loan exhibition of 15 drawings by Vincent van Gogh, loaned by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

For those still concerned with the investment potential of fine art — an increasingly influential contingent in the rapidly globalizing art market — this year's TEFAF opens with another important symposium on the state of the global art market. "Art Symposium: Rising Stars in the Art World" will be held at the fair on Friday, March 15, and will begin with a review of the global art trade during 2012, highlighting the contribution of the emerging economies of China and Brazil. Leading arts economist Dr. Clare McAndrew will present the findings of the latest TEFAF Art Market Report on these issues, which will be launched during this year's fair. The second theme will be "Top performing artists: why they dominate the market and how they continue to do so." One is unlikely to find slumbering visitors on the TEFAF benches.

London Eye: December 2012

Whether it was the example of another former Chiswick resident, the 18th-century painter and prolific printmaker William Hogarth, that inspired the late American landscape artist Thomas Kinkade (1958-2012) to choose Chiswick as the location of his only London gallery, remains a mystery. While a bronze statue of Hogarth looks benevolently down on shoppers on the Chiswick High Road, a hundred yards away the gallery of Thomas Kinkade — the self-styled "Painter of Light" — has remained open since Kinkade's death from an overdose of valium and alcohol in April this year.

This week it was reported that the artist's $66 million estate has finally been settled, thereby bringing to an end a torrid public battle between the painter's widow and his girlfriend for control of the estate.

"I didn't even know the estate had been settled," said the Chiswick gallery's representative when Auction Central News visited earlier today. "They have been squabbling over money for so long." The gallery continues to do brisk business among overseas visitors charmed by the limited-edition chocolate box prints hand-finished by the late artist's assistants. "They found hundreds of other works in his studio that have never been editioned," said the gallery assistant, "so there is still a lot of capacity left in the Kinkade brand."

Elsewhere in the UK art calendar, the new year is often a busy time as the trade hopes to hit the ground running. The National Fine Art & Antiques Fair at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham has traditionally offered an early indicator of how the year might pan out. Thus it was less than encouraging to hear that this year's event had been canceled due to what the organizers, Clarion Events, described as "insufficient commitment" from the trade. “This has been a very difficult decision, but we believe our reputation for delivering an impressive variety of antiques and fine art would be compromised and ultimately the visitor and exhibitor experience would be adversely affected," said fair director Tiffany Pritchard.

Whether this cancellation will have a positive effect on another significant new year fair — the Luxury Antiques Weekend at the Mere Golf Resort & Spa in Knutsford, Cheshire, from Jan. 25 to 27, remains to be seen. It is possible that the dealers slated to appear at the canceled NEC Fair were unable to find stock of sufficient quality to justify the journey to Birmingham. That seems not to the be the case with those dealers booked to appear in Cheshire. Elford Fine Art of Tavistock, Devon, is making the long trip north from the West Country to show, among other items, a fine oil on canvas entitled The Red Hat by Charles A. Buchel, which will be for sale at £14,000 ($22,635), while Norfolk dealer T. Robert will be showing an Irish gold cannetille brooch in the form of a harp decorated with natural pearls and Columbian emeralds, circa 1820, priced at around £5,000 ($8,080). Among the fine furniture on offer is a handsome William and Mary period laburnum oyster-veneered chest of drawers, circa 1695, for which Ampthill, Bedfordshire dealers S&S Timms will be asking £19,800 ($32,015).

Not everything in the forthcoming fairs diary conforms to the traditional and occasionally rather staid fine art and antiques template, as can be seen by an interesting image of the Rolling Stones which is due to be shown at the Watercolours and Works on Paper Fair at the Science Museum, South Kensington from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3.

The Rolling Stones are hardly under-represented in the annals of contemporary art history. As well as the numerous memorable photographs of the band, what will probably linger longest in the archive is the image of a handcuffed Mick Jagger in the back of a cab alongside the notorious junkie art dealer Robert "Groovy Bob" Fraser in Richard Hamilton's famous Swingeing London painting of 1968-69 (Tate Britain). The pair had just been arrested following a drugs bust at the house of Stones guitarist Keith Richards. Richards and Jagger were acquitted on appeal; "Groovy Bob" was sentenced to six months hard labor.

The recent Rolling Stones tour has again reinvigorated media interest in the band and this can surely only add commercial luster to the rare 1965 drawing of the Stones by David Oxtoby, titled Stone, Stone, Stone + 1, which will be offered at the Watercolour and Works on Paper Fair priced at £1,400 ($2,260). The drawing, in ballpoint pen and blue ink and inscribed, signed and dated "Minneapolis 1965," was drawn from a photograph while Oxtoby was teaching in Minneapolis at the time. The artist devoted much of his work to images of rock 'n' roll performers but the present image is seen as particularly treasurable given that much of Oxtoby's work of the 1960s was lost in a warehouse fire.

On a more traditional note, the ever-reliable Fleming Collection at 13 Berkeley St., London W1 — the spiritual home of Scottish art in London — is about to stage an exhibition to mark the 80th birthday of James Morrison, one of Scotland's most respected landscape artists. The retrospective, titled "Land and Landscape," will range from 1950s paintings of the artist's home city of Glasgow, to more recent images inspired by rural and coastal Scotland and journeys overseas. Morrison's patrons include the Royal Family and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, as well as museums and corporate and private collections. The images shown here — the oil on canvas view of a terrace of grimy Glasgow brownstones titled Crown Terrace (1957), the more recent, lushly brushed and atmospheric Montreathmont Forest (1990), and the luminous oil on board coastal scene titled Old Montrose Winter (1984) offer an indiction of Morrison's extraordinary technical range and ability to capture the spirit of a place, be it rural or urban. The exhibition runs from Feb. 19 to April 6.

While the Fleming Collection is celebrating the Caledonian tradition of landscape painting, the Royal Academy is genuflecting toward the English legacy of landscape masters in an exhibition titled "Constable, Gainsborough, Turner," which includes numerous familiar images, including Constable's famous The Leaping Horse of 1825. The show, which explores the full range of English landscape painting at its height, from the traditions of the awe-inspiring Sublime to that of the pleasing Picturesque, is sure to have the queues snaking out onto Piccadilly for the next several weeks. In yet another of the increasingly common collaborations between cash-strapped institutions and the art trade, the show is supported by leading London dealers Lowell Libson Ltd.

Finally, a brief mention for one of the more significant hammer prices registered outside London over the past few weeks: Yorkshire auctioneers Dee Atkinson and Harrison had a marvelous small bronze by the late British sculptor Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930-1993) at their Nov. 30 sale. Man Standing, 13 3/4 inches high, numbered 8 from an edition of 8, had been estimated at £14,000-£16,000 but eventually coaxed a winning bid of £22,500 to top the sale.

With many of the UK's towns, villages and interconnecting roads still partly submerged thanks to several weeks of interminable rain, the ever-peripatetic trade will be praying for an end to the floods so that the seasonal fair-going and auction-attending can continue uninterrupted.

London Eye: November 2012

LONDON - Today, London is often jocularly referred to as Londongrad or Moscow-on-Thames on account of the estimated 300,000 Russians who now call London their home. Earlier this week it seemed a sizeable proportion of them were assembled at Christie's and Sotheby's for the sales of Russian works of art.

Not so very long ago, Russian art was a tiny corner of London saleroom activity. Sotheby's and Christie's auctions were almost exclusively attended by the trade, with perhaps twenty or thirty dealers — most of them British — rattling around a cavernous saleroom. How times have changed. At this week's London sales of Russian art, both Christie's and Sotheby's salerooms were packed to the rafters and it was clear from the constant buzz of conversation that the vast majority were Russian.

Yet the works on sale this week were hardly the kind of thing that is often referred to as 'affordable art'. Sotheby's sale on 26 November raised £11.4 million ($18.3m) from just 28 lots, while earlier in the day Christie's equivalent sale of important Russian art raised £15.1 million ($24.2m) for 254 lots. No fewer than six artist records were established at Sotheby's.

Such high spending may seem extraordinary during a time of recession until one learns from Hermitage Capital Management that between 1998 and 2004, some $102 billion in capital is estimated to have left Russia. The UK's 'Non-Domicile' tax system thus makes London a favourable place to stay for Russians with new-found wealth and clearly the fine art auction houses are indirect beneficiaries of that. Asked by Auction Central News why Sotheby's don't hold their Russian sales in Moscow, Mark Poltimore, Chairman of Sotheby's Russian art department, said, "Because if we did there is a chance that we would be pressured to engage in practices we do not find acceptable and there is still too much mafia activity there. But equally important is the fact that Russians love London. There is great wealth here and it is still a centre of the world art market. The Russians love coming here and love buying from us in London."

Perhaps the clearest evidence of that was the competitive bidding battle that ensued over an exceptionally rare Portrait of Praskovia Anatolievna Mamontova by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (1865-1911) who, alongside Ilya Repin, is Russia's most celebrated portrait painter. The mesmerising intensity of the sitter's gaze and the daringly muted maroon palette were enough to send this to a premium-inclusive £1.2 million ($1.9m), double the upper estimate. "A fitting price for a great artist," declared Lord Poltimore as he brought the hammer down on a new record for the artist.

While Serov's brooding portrait perhaps enjoyed a premium on account of its small size, the same could not be said of Vasili Vasilievich Vereschagin's (1842-1904) Transportation of the Wounded, an enormous, panoramic depiction of a train of covered wagons and walking wounded returning from the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78. Vereschagin, one of the most famous painters in the world in the late nineteenth century largely thanks to his war paintings, has become something of a star of the London Russian sales (Sotheby's last outing saw over a million pounds change hands for the artist's The Spy). On this occasion the hammer fell at £937,250 ($1.5m).

Finally, one other interesting lot at Sotheby's was a dazzling canvas by the Georgian modernist painter Lado Davidovich Gudiashvili's (1896-1925) entitled By the Black Stream, 1925. This vibrantly coloured scene of a Modiglianiesque nude languishing by a river reflected the artist's time among the Parisian avant garde and it quickly brought a new auction record for the artist at £937,250 ($1.5m).

Over at Christie's earlier in the day, their European president Jussi Pylkkänen could be seen prowling behind the rostrum, keeping an eagle on the bidding. He too may have been marvelling at London's still burgeoning market for Russian art. The most dramatic illustration of that was when the aptly seasonal The Coachman by Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927) came under the hammer. The subject and mood of the painting — a bearded blue-clad figure standing in a winter landscape, beaming with pleasure as he raises his hat — seemed curiously at odds with the current gloomy state of the global economy. That may have explained its rapturous reception in a roomful of seemingly recession-proof Russians for it demolished an estimate of £1,500,000-2,000,000 to bring £4,409,250 million ($7,063,618) — from a private bidder.

Rather less surprising was the other high price of the paintings section, where Nicolai Fechin's (1881-1955) conventionally impressionistic Portrait of Mademoiselle Podbelskaya of 1912 almost doubled the upper estimate to fetch £2,057,250 ($$3,295,714), once again falling to a private buyer. Meanwhile the enduring appeal of Fabergé was illustrated by the feverish competition that greeted a silver-gilt, nephrite and guilloché enamel table barometer bearing the mark of Henrik Wigström, 1908-1917, which realised £301,250 ($482,602) where just £70,000-90,000 had been expected— a barometer of new Russian wealth if ever one were needed.

Away from the salerooms, the London trade are already preparing for the seasonal trade. At least that would seem to be the case judging from the inventory released by London dealers Mallett. The firm have just secured a new collection of furniture and works of art which include one or two unusual objects. It is always a challenge to find makers' names for highly individual creations but Mallett seem confident of the authorship of a pair of Sri Lankan carved ebony octagonal occasional tables, circa 1870, decorated with radiating veneers of specimen native woods. These are being linked to the name of Andres da Costa on account of their similarity to a breakfast table sold at Sotheby's in Chester in 1987. This underscores the value of the sales archive in attributing unsigned furniture. Mallett are looking for around £46,000 for these.

While the occasional tables are intriguing, arguably even more fascinating is a rare mid-nineteenth century cigar cutter with the words 'Souvenir des Îles de Salut' engraved on the top plate. This refers to the Salvation Islands off the coast of French Guyana, a notoriously brutal penal colony in the mid-nineteenth century, which was made famous in Henri Charrière's novel Papillon, and later in the eponymous movie starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Was this grisly gadget a fixture of a cigar-smoking prison governor's desk? A 'snip' at £9,500, but you'll need to keep your fingers out of the way.

Mallett's boarded-up former premises opposite Sotheby's in New Bond Street look very forlorn now that the business has moved to the elegant Ely House in Dover Street in nearby Mayfair. The firm were understandably irritated at the steady encroachment by luxury handbag and clothing companies into a district that had been a centre of the art trade since the 1870s. Nearby Cork Street, another historic art street, is also threatened by the advancing up-market rag-trade which goes from strength to strength thanks to the influx of new wealth into London in recent decades. London Eye spoke to some Cork Street dealers this week and while those on the right (or West) side of the street now feel relatively secure for the next three years, the opposite (East) side remains under threat from property developers looking to develop the site.

The times they are a-changing in Londongrad.

Finally, a very brief mention to a major new exhibition of paintings by Lincoln Seligman entitled ‘An Artist at Large’ will be on view at La Galleria, Pall Mall, from 3–8 December, featuring works recording the artist's travels during the past three years. Seligman has criss-crossed the globe during that period, covering more than 200,000 miles over four continents, armed with sketch pad, brushes and camera. The remarkable images he has captured from Tuscan hill villages to Indian palaces, from the shores of Africa to the plains of the American west might make nice surprise Christmas presents for those who have, well, almost everything.

#   #   #

London Eye: October 2012

The trade seemed to approve of the new Frieze Masters, however, London Modern British dealers Osborne Samuel enjoying a positive reception for their Henry Moore solo show. Peter Osborne told London Eye it had been "an extremely good fair and long overdue. It put Frieze into context and all round did what we hoped it would. It was very well received; we sold five things including the most expensive and we met loads of really good new collectors from all over, many of whom had come for Frieze and found Frieze Masters afterwards. We'd do it again without hesitation."

Similar feedback came from Paris-based Galerie Meyer, dealers in Oceanic art. Anthony Meyer told London Eye it was "a wonderful event, extremely well-organized with, of course, a few inconsequential growing pains which will be ironed out in the future." Meyer concluded it was "worthwhile both in immediate sales and meeting the right people," describing the clientele as "a very interesting, eclectic crowd, many of whom had never really seen high quality tribal art on display for sale in the UK because of the departure of the tribal auctions to Paris and New York."

As for whether Frieze Masters could challenge The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), which takes place in Maastricht in the Netherlands every March, Anthony Meyer thinks not. "I will definitely do Frieze Masters again," he said, "but it will not, and cannot, replace TEFAF."

Ancient and modern is a developing theme in London at present. This week we were treated to an early preview of a fascinating loan exhibition which will take place at the British Antique Dealers' Association (BADA) Fair in London early next year (March 13 to 19). The exhibition will feature a selection of watercolors by the influential painter and "topographer of the picturesque" William Payne (1760-1830). Curated by Payne expert and BADA Fair exhibitor John Spink, the show contrasts watercolor landscapes executed by Payne in the 18th century with the same scenes photographed today. The view across the Plym estuary to Saltram Park near Plymouth seems barely to have changed at all since Payne executed his View of Saltram Park from near Crab Tree, while his Swansea Bay from near Oystermouth Castle in south Wales is also strikingly similar to the same view today, save for the absence of a few picturesque peasants in the foreground and the Norman castle now obscured by trees. The exhibition looks set to offer reassuring confirmation that despite the galloping pace of technological progress, the British landscape remains relatively unchanged—surely an appropriate theme for an antiques fair.

One person who will doubtless be hoping that her own paintings are still being enjoyed 200 years from now is Morag Donkin, a talented final year student at Edinburgh College of Art, whose Redhall House 1, an atmospheric oil and ink painting of a disused children's home in Scotland, has just won the new Fleming-Wyfold Award. Named after the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation—the charity that runs the noted Fleming Collection, which supports emerging artists with Scottish heritage—the £2,000 award will give Donkin a welcome boost of confidence as she nears graduation. "It's fantastic, I didn't expect to win," she said afterwards, adding that her work is grounded in research based around films, particularly horror movies. "I take an uncanny look at normal life," she said. The spooky approach seems to be paying off.

It is often remarked that England had no school of home-grown painters during the 17th century, having to rely on the imported talents of the likes of Rubens and van Dyck for its visual culture. A new exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery places the German-born, Dutch-trained Peter Lely back among the greats of the Stuart painters, revealing him as an artist of true poetry and sensuality. "Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision," currently on show until Jan. 13 features a largely forgotten group of early paintings depicting shepherds, nymphs, musicians and other naked or loosely attired figures luxuriating in pastoral landscapes. The canvas entitled Nymphs by a Fountain is fairly representative of the unabashed eroticism that Lely excelled in at this time, recently prompting the loquacious London art critic Brian Sewell to label the exhibition "a bonne bouche of a show, a delicious morsel." Certainly Lely's Boy as a Shepherd confirms why he won so many admirers at the time, despite the prevailing instability of the Civil War, by managing to evoke a timeless arcadian idyll using contemporary pictorial language.

As Lely's show makes clear, the Old Masters were able to justify their liberal portrayal of naked flesh by framing their visions as mythological scenes. If the Peter Lely show at the Courtauld leaves your craving yet more disrobed cellulite, you might wander over to the Wallace Collection in Manchester Square where they are celebrating the recent restoration of the Allegory of Fruitfulness by the Flemish master Jacob Jordaens. It perhaps goes without saying that this marvelous example of Golden Age painting is a rather more appropriate presence in the Wallace Collection's red flock interiors than the Damien Hirst canvases parked there a year or two ago.

The Jordaens restoration also happens to be a good news story for the art market, for the conservation was made possible thanks to a generous donation of £40,000 from the Masterpiece Fair. The fair organized a charity gala dinner, inviting illustrious patrons and prominent museum curators with the aim of raising funds for one of London's most treasured museums. Philip Hewat-Jaboor, chairman of Masterpiece, said, "We are delighted that Masterpiece London has been able to contribute to the conservation of this stunning and important work," the unveiling of which serendipitously coincided with Harvest Festival Week earlier this month.

And so to a contemporary theme. There is still time to catch the exhibition of typically innovative new paintings by Bruce McLean (born 1944) at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery in London's Cork Street (until Nov. 3). The show, titled "The Shapes of Sculpture," demonstrates McLean's tireless exploration of what sculpture means today. As the gallery phrases it, McLean has, since the 1960s, been interrogating "the condition of sculpture, the nature of its validity, its diverse possibilities of meaning, its propositions and pretensions, its presentations, positionings and re-positionings, its private and public settings, indoor and outdoor, and its critical contexts." Phew!

Given the brouhaha about public sculpture recently reignited by the installation of Damien Hirst's monumental bronze écorché figure of a pregnant woman in the sleepy little north Devon seaside town of Ilfracombe, McLean's show promises a welcome and thoughtful meditation on a perennially controversial topic.

As we indicated in an earlier London Eye, London's famous Cork Street remains an endangered focal point of the art trade, despite its long and noble history. Watch this space for more news on whether it will survive the recent decision to evict the galleries to make way for radical commercial property development.

London Eye: September 2012

Locations are obviously important – London remains a cultural magnet for the world’s wealthy, while Miami has winter sun – but once you’re inside the marquee, aren’t these fairs all starting to look the same, all populated by the same dealers offering the same kind of stock?

This month London sees the appearance of a new blockbuster fair – Frieze Masters, which, like its sister event, Frieze, will be located in Regent’s Park from Oct. 11-14. The trade seems to have taken to it with alacrity, seeing it as yet another opportunity to reach those High Net Worth collectors of contemporary art who flock to London in their multitudes to attend the main Frieze event. The assumption is that buyers of contemporary art are also often buyers of more classic historical objects. We shall soon see whether that assumption is correct.

While Regent’s Park becomes the focus of art world attention every October, another historic center of London’s art trade is under threat. The capital’s modern and contemporary art dealers are currently working around the clock, mobilizing petitions to save Cork Street in the West End. Earlier this year the landlord of seven galleries on the street sold the building in which they are located to property developers Native Land. The development company plans to knock the building down and replace it with a residential development. Many of the galleries will lose their leases if the planned development goes ahead, including The Mayor Gallery (in Cork Street since the 1920s), Beaux Arts, Alpha Gallery, Adam Gallery, Stoppenbach & Delestre, Waterhouse & Dodd and Gallery 27. It will interesting to see whether the art trade’s uncharacteristic use of the social network to drum up support will pay off (Twitter hash-tag: #saveCorkStreet).

With real estate rents rising, one can see why fairs are attracting so much attention. One American buyer told the organizers of last year’s Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in London’s Battersea Park that it is still economically viable to buy at the London fair and ship the goods across the Atlantic rather than to buy stateside. This presumably applies even to furniture such as the 19th-century Irish ash “bacon settle” that will be offered at this year’s fair by West Sussex dealers Wakelin & Linfield at £9,800 ($15,800). The Decorative Fair’s emphasis on interiors and the decorator trade has helped it to flourish during tough times. At this week’s event (Oct. 2-7 in Battersea Park), Val Foster of Decorative Collective will be showing a small French handpainted screen by Micheline de Rougemont, signed and dated 1992, for which they are asking £1450 ($2,340), while Richard Hoppé will be offering a fine pair of Art Nouveau tiles, circa 1900, by Johann von Schwarz of Nürnberg, designed by in-house artist Carl Siegmund Luber. These will be priced at £4,500 ($7,260).

If the planners and property developers have their way, we may end up looking back on the West End’s heyday as a center of the art trade with the same antiquarian curiosity that we bring to John Sell Cotman’s watercolors of Normandy, a selection of which are about to go on display at Dulwich Picture Gallery. The acclaimed British watercolorist made numerous visits to Normandy in the 1820s to study and paint the region’s medieval architecture. One of his most celebrated works of the period is a study of Alençon, which includes what is regarded as one of the earliest images of an “antique” shop. Antique dealers were known in London at that time as brokers, “toymen,” or “nicknackitarians.” Cotman’s image is of a vanished world. Many London dealers will be hoping Cork Street doesn’t end up the same way.

Staying momentarily on the French theme, November sees the opening of the annual Forum d’Avignon – an “independent international think-tank” held in the southern French city of Avignon, which aims to break down the barriers between culture and the economy. This may be another example of the “event-driven” cultural sector, but whether it will foster lasting and productive initiatives between economists and the “culturati” or provide just another opportunity for a good time remains to be seen. Images from last year’s event suggest it is both a hotbed of serious discussion and a chance to enjoy some good music. The fifth edition of the Forum will be held in the Palais des Papes in Avignon from Nov. 15-17 and is already taking bookings from London intellectuals and business people. The theme will be “Culture: Reasons to Hope – Imagining and Passing On.”

The Avignon event is a further reminder that we are now all living in a “global” world where the boundaries that formerly separated market sectors are fast disappearing. Mallett, one of London’s most venerable antiques dealers, has been energetically embracing aspects of visual culture beyond the rarefied realm of antique furniture on which its reputation largely rests. The firm recently moved to Ely House, an elegant 18th-century Grade I-listed former bishop’s palace in Mayfair, central London.

In November Mallett will stage an exhibition of the work of contemporary artist Sunita Kumar, who is widely respected in her native India. Kumar was a close friend of the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta and some of the works in Mallett’s exhibition have been inspired by that relationship. With Kumar’s work being endorsed by figures such as M.F. Husain, one of the giants of Indian modernist painting, it is a fair bet that Kumar’s reputation will continue to grow. Certainly her landscapes and interiors, rendered in delicate and vibrant acrylics, look likely to win admirers among those collectors seeking something different from the sort of noisy contemporary art currently dominating the media. As Husain himself commented, “In the midst of all the technical bravado and dazzle of art events, a painter serene in her presence and subtle in her rendering of images in color and line whispers in your ears ... that serene and silent painter is Sunita Kumar.” The exhibition “Sunita Kumar’s India’ will be at Mallett at Ely House from Nov. 1-10.

The directors of the Fleming Collection, the spiritual home of Scottish art in London, are of the firm opinion that the work of the Scottish Colorist Leslie Hunter is “brilliant, but still misunderstood.” One way to dispel such a misunderstanding is, of course, to mount a major exhibition of Hunter’s work, which is what the Fleming Collection has done. “Leslie Hunter: A Life in Colour” includes examples of Hunter’s work made during his various sojourns in San Francisco, France and Italy as well as in his native Scotland.

Bill Smith and Jill Marriner, who have written a new biography of Hunter, believe the Scotsman was a brilliant painter but remains misunderstood and “the least appreciated of the four Scottish Colourists” (they are referring, of course, to his colleagues John Duncan Fergusson, Francis Cadell and Samuel John Peploe). Peploe himself once said that Hunter’s best pictures were “as good as Matisse,” who was clearly an inspiration to all of them. Hunter’s work was, however, marred by ill health (he died at the young age of 54). We will get a chance to judge the extent to which Hunter deserves to be reappraised at the exhibition, which runs at the Fleming Collection’s premises at 13 Berkeley St. from Oct. 23-Feb. 2.

London Eye: August 2012

Fortunately the more prestigious art and antiques fairs scheduled for September and October are generally patronized by the sort of high net worth clientèle that eschews public transport in favor of the black cab or private limousine. So, despite the lingering recession, the weeks ahead still hold plenty of commercial promise for the trade.

They say there’s an app for everything and you know that must be true when even a somewhat conservative trade body like the Association of Art and Antiques Dealers has developed an iPhone app for its Berkeley Square Fair that is scheduled to run from Sept. 19 to 23. The app informs you about the fair’s exhibitors and offers directions and opening hours, plus an interactive guide to nearby galleries in Mayfair and beyond. The real bonus, however, is that it comes with a complimentary ticket admitting two people to the fair. Presumably all you need to do is flash your iPhone at the front desk and you’re in. Who said the antiques trade was stuck in the past?

The LAPADA app contains links to illustrated previews of many of the items that will be on show. Among the jewelery we spotted a Flying Swallow brooch, circa 1925, by the Parisian firm of La Cloche Frères. On the stand of London dealers The Gilded Lily, this tour de force of the lapidary arts combines gold, Burma rubies, emeralds and diamonds set in 18-karat gold overlaid with platinum. In a similar taste is a 1940s cabochon ruby and diamond bangle attributed to the American jeweler Paul Flato, priced at £47,000 ($74,620) on the stand of Twenty First Century Jewels. The fact that it was once owned by the Polish Art Deco painter Tamara De Lempicka will doubtless deepen its appeal among discerning collectors.

One other object that caught our eye from LAPADA’s publicity was a Victorian Chester-hallmarked silver "nef" in the form of a galleon in full sail by the German silversmith Berthold Müller. These little contraptions used to be filled with salt and were pushed around the dinner tables of noble families. It would be interesting to know where this example — which can be seen on the stand of London Silver Vaults dealers, Langfords — might end up. Finally, among the more handsome furniture items is a Regency crossbanded amboyna wood tip-top center table in the manner of George Smith, circa 1825, which Antiques Roadshow expert Lennox Cato is offering at £24,000 ($38,000).

Regular art market watchers will already be familiar with the virtual dominance by Asian dealers of the market for imperial Chinese porcelain in recent years. Every time a significant collection of imperial wares, jades, or traditional brush paintings comes up for auction — whether in London or the provinces — one can be sure to encounter a saleroom full of mainland Chinese or Taiwanese or Hong Kong dealers. It was thus no surprise to be told by the leading art market research companies that China has become the largest art market in the world by volume of transactions. What did come as a surprise, however, was to read the investigative journalism published by Forbes that suggested that the Chinese market may be something of a hall of mirrors. Whether, as Forbes reported, the Chinese auction sector is indeed state-controlled and subject to various kinds of nefarious activity remains a moot point. What is not in doubt, however, is the fact that some of the more expensive lots hammered down in recent years in European salerooms still remain unpaid for.

Given this background and the lingering whiff of controversy surrounding the Chinese market, it was reassuring to see that London dealers Eskenazi, surely the preeminent Western purveyors of Asian art, are to stage an exhibition devoted to Qing porcelain. This will be a chance to see some of the finest examples of the sort of wares that are currently quickening the pulses of Chinese mainland collectors. Originating from a single private collection, many of the pieces are provenanced to earlier famous collections, such as those of J.M. Chu, T.Y. Chao and Paul and Helen Bernat.

How many of these masterpieces will ultimately find their way back to China is as yet unknown, but given the levels to which Chinese collectors are prepared to go to acquire museum-quality objects, one suspects that at least some of them will soon be heading east. Eskenazi’s exhibition at their Clifford Street premises runs Nov. 1-23 and is timed to coincide with the 15th Asian Art in London event.

Founded in 1988, the 20/21 British Art Fair remains one of the most popular fairs in the London art market calendar. This year the fair marks its 25th anniversary and so one supposes there will be a celebratory atmosphere at the galleries of the Royal College of Art from Sept. 12-16. What makes the fair so enduring and popular is its unwavering focus on Modern British art. This is a sector of the market whose fortunes have fluctuated greatly in contrast with other more international categories, and yet it continues to build a passionate collecting base and prices are now rising. Among the potentially more sought-after works on sale this year is a signed lithograph, Paper Pools, by David Hockney — arguably the Royal College’s most famous alumnus — on the stand of Dominic Guerrini, while Agnew’s will be a showing a superb example of the work of the late Keith Vaughan (1912-1978) — Man Gathering Fruit of 1948. Cheek-by-jowl with these giants of British art is a screenprint titled No Ball Games of 2009 by the much hyped street artist Banksy, also on the stand of Dominic Guerrini.

September is always a busy month in the UK arts calendar as everyone returns from holiday to confront life’s rain-sodden realities and takes a deep breath in readiness for the Frieze onslaught. October will be even more intense this year as Frieze sits alongside its new Old Master equivalent — Frieze Masters. London Eye will be on hand to report the inaugural instalment of this groundbreaking addition to the annual fairs calendar.

Away from the capital, we always like to give a brief mention to the exhibitions staged by the Jerram Gallery in Sherborne, Dorset, chiefly on account of their unerring ability to discover lesser-known but gifted British artists. Their next exhibition, titled "The Mind’s Eye," features new landscape and still life paintings by David Brayne and Vivienne Williams and runs from Sept. 22 to Oct. 12. The two works we illustrate here — David Brayne’s landscape titled Silver Hare, and Vivienne Williams’s still life, Jug with Pears and Beans, demonstrate how well matched are their individual visions and painterly techniques.

Finally, we are happy to hear from Sotheby's spokeswoman Mitzi Mina that Sotheby’s director and star auctioneer Henry Wyndham is “currently on track for a full and rapid recovery" after sustaining injuries to his face while out shooting on the grouse moor. We wish Mr. Wyndham a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing back on the rostrum in the near future.

London Eye: July 2012

It was not, however, the British weather that prompted U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney to conclude that London was not ready to host the Games, an utterance that will have done little to endear him to the British. Fortunately for Romney, his diplomatic blunder was quickly overshadowed by more diverting incidents such as the moment when a hand-bell being rung in the build-up to the Games by accident-prone UK Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt flew off its handle and narrowly missed injuring a passerby. That is what is known as "a clanger."

And then there was the Olympic opening ceremony, directed by British film director Danny Boyle, whose theatrical extravaganza marked a welcome change from the tradition adopted by most previous host countries of getting countless thousands of synchronized performers to create shapes that can only be seen from outer space.

But the Olympics also coaxed some amusing cultural innovations from visiting nations, such as the "London Booster" created by Czech sculptor David Cerny to mark the Czech Republic's participation in the XXX Olympiad. This was a red 'Routemaster' London bus which had been fitted with a pair of hydraulic arms that allows it to perform push-ups.

And so to the art market. It would be easy to assume that the gloomy weather would have dealt a killer blow to the UK's summer art fairs, but the post-event reports paint an altogether more positive picture. Malletts, one of London's oldest and most respected furniture dealerships, claim to have enjoyed their best Masterpiece Fair this year, which was held between June 28 and July 4.

“This has been our most successful fair of the 21st century”, said Giles Hutchinson Smith, chief executive of Mallett, which recently moved into new premises in a former bishop's palace in Mayfair. That ecclesiastical connection proved appropriate, for among the more significant items sold by Mallett at the Masterpiece fair was an important Carlton House desk commissioned by the Duke of Clarence, who later became William IV. Mallett informs us that the rare mahogany and satinwood table was presented by the Duke to his chaplain, the Rev. William Ellis, in 1797, "probably as a gift to the clergyman for having discreetly baptized the 10 illegitimate children he had had by his mistress, the Irish actress Dorothea Jordan."

Mallett also found buyers at the fair for a rare and recently discovered set of 10 Regency mahogany dining chairs, circa 1820, attributed to the notable firm of Gillow's of Lancaster and decorated with hunting scenes by John Nost Satorius, while a rare late 18thcentury bronze figure of a shepherd, in the manner of the English sculptor John Cheere, also fetched a six-figure sum.

The UK is currently hosting thousands of visitors from around the world who have flown in for the Olympic Games, but one wonders how many of them will venture beyond the capital into the English countryside. American guests heading towards the West Country may be interested to make a short detour to the American Museum in Britain, located in the historic spa town of Bath. This month the museum is hosting an exhibition of photographs from the collection of textile designer Christopher Hyland. The exhibition, entitled "By Way of These Eyes," features work by many of America's most celebrated photographers, including Edward Steichen, Paul Strand, Edward Weston, Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts and Sally Mann. Hyland believes his collection "represents in general the robust and dynamic spirit of American optimism in the 20th century" and thus, appropriately for Olympic year, iconic sporting images abound. Hyland has also included some rather more idiosyncratic images of his own making, including some studies of tattooed men.

The British are generally well-practised at making the best of bad weather but this year has really tested the nation's patience. The almost incessant rain dealt a severe blow to one aspect of British visual culture that traditionally comes into its own during the summer months — the outdoor sculpture display. While many of the permanent sculpture parks pressed ahead with their annual summer season, one or two of the temporary summer sculpture exhibitions had to be canceled, including the Littlecote House Sculpture Show in Hungerford, Berkshire.

Happily, the exhibition curated by British sculptor David Worthington, who is vice president of the Royal British Society of Sculptors, at the famous Chelsea Physic Garden went ahead. Twenty artists have contributed works to the show, which is entitled "Pertaining to Things Natural" and which continues until Oct. 31. Anyone who has visited the Chelsea Physic Garden will know what an intellectually and aesthetically stimulating environment it is. One is always sure to come across some weird plant or species never previously encountered. It is to Worthington's credit that he has enhanced that aspect of the garden by locating the sculptures in creative relationship to the indigenous flora. The range of works on display provides yet further testament to the imagination and skill of British artists who make "real" sculpture as opposed to getting a fabricator to manufacture large-scale toys. It is always pleasing to find work by Peter Randall-Page, who has an extraordinary instinct for working with stone, but also to see work by less familiar names such as the delicate creation by Jo Coupe which adds a touch of whimsical magic to the Chelsea show.

In contrast to the Chelsea Physic Garden's bucolic attractions, the "Tate Tanks" — the cavernous former gas tanks beneath Tate Modern's Bankside gallery — have finally opened to much media ballyhoo. The conversion of these vast subterranean spaces says much about the transformation that has taken place in the making and reception of art in recent years, from the contemplative viewing of a painting or sculpture to the "event-driven," performative practices that now preoccupy curators at galleries like Tate.

Already, specially commissioned film and multimedia "performances" have been staged in the new spaces, including recent work by Korean artist Sung Hwan Kim and Belgian artist Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, while recent Tate acquisitions such as the music and light installation Light Music (1975) by Lis Rhodes and Suzanne Lacy's The Crystal Quilt (1985-87) will soon also find a home there.

Finally, from the rarefied world of contemporary art to the down-to-earth but no less fascinating realm of provincial auctions, this month threw up one particularly intriguing object that would surely have presented a challenge to the most experienced appraiser. Coming under the hammer at Hartley's saleroom in the Yorkshire town of Ilkley this month was a Victorian pine witness box. The anonymous maker of this handsome object had seen fit to decorate it with an egg and dart moulded cornice, a bible rest and a brass rail. It had been removed from the Magistrates Court in the Yorkshire town of Bingley, but originally did service in Bradford Crown Court. Who knows how many malefactors had hung their heads in shame within its confined space over the past century?

Bidders may have been pondering those historical considerations as they wrestled it beyond the estimate of £150-250 to a hammer price of £460 ($710). One can almost hear the court clerk's words echoing down the panelled corridors: "Call Mr. Mitt Romney!"

London Eye: June 2012

It is late June and London's Masterpiece fair, now in its third year, has just opened on the south grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea in an enormous marquee, the facade of which has been mocked up as a Georgian terrace.

The fair — which rose like a phoenix in 2009 from the ashes of the Grosvenor House Fine Art and Antiques Fair — is London's attempt to match, or perhaps even outdo, The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) in Maastricht, which takes place annually in March. Both fairs have a similar ambience with the dealers' stands located on wide avenues that open into spacious piazzas where visitors can take the weight off their Jimmy Choos over a glass of champagne. There is also a wealth of swanky restaurants, bistros and bars.

Like most fine art fairs today, Masterpiece's target audience is the fast-expanding international community of High Net Worth and Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) seeking a safe harbor for their wealth. Fine art and other alternative assets are increasingly considered the most attractive way to diversify an investment portfolio. So, cheek by jowl with Old Master paintings and longcase clocks at Masterpiece there were stands selling Rolls Royce motorcars, top-of-the-range Riva powerboats, and gold-plated sculptures by Damien Hirst.

We cannot illustrate the Damien Hirst écorché figure that presides over the fair's central champagne bar as we were prohibited from taking a photograph by two Gagosian Gallery shop assistants standing sentry nearby. They would not even disclose the asking price, such is the air of exclusivity surrounding Hirst and all his works. Discretion over prices extends to all classes of object at the Masterpiece fair. We asked the price of an exuberantly decorated rococo bureau by François Linke on the stand of London dealer Adrian Alan. "The price is on application," said the gallery assistant. "I'm sorry; I cannot even give you a ballpark figure."

Despite the fair's opulence and the air of breezy optimism issuing from the ancillary staff, the mood among the trade was somewhat downbeat when Auction Central News visited on the first day. The dealers we spoke to had sold nothing at the opening vernissage the previous evening but remained optimistic that business would improve as the fair progressed.

"Buying art is not exactly a priority in these recessionary times," said London sculpture dealer Robert Bowman, who added, "We did well here in previous years and I'm sure we will again." Bowman was showing major bronzes by Rodin alongside recent works by the internationally renowned American-born British sculptor Helaine Blumenfeld.

Two or three dealers lamented the fair's late closing on the final day (July 4). "Why do we have to be open until 9 p.m. on Wednesday?" said one who asked to remain anonymous. "It smacks of desperation."

Gaining entry to the Masterpiece fair can be like entering the Vatican's inner sanctum, so security-conscious have the organizers of these luxury events become. Such caution is perhaps understandable as the start of the London 2012 Olympics gets ever closer.

One firm whose business is devoted to alleviating such anxieties in the fine art and culture sector is London-based Ecclesiastical Insurance who celebrate their 125-year jubilee this year. Clare Pardy, Ecclesiastical's fine art and heritage underwriting manager, writes to tell us that their fine art portfolio has grown significantly as the art market has continued to bounce back from recession. Their specialist fine art team has expanded accordingly since they started in the spring of 2008. Rather appropriately in this, their jubilee year, Ecclesiastical has teamed up with the popular magazine The Oldie to recognise the achievements of British artists over the age of 60. This seems only fair given that most awards these days are focused on younger artists. A short list of 10 works will be chosen by the judging panel and the winner of the £5,000 Oldie British Artists Award (OBA) will be announced on Oct. 16 at the English Speaking Union in London. Who knows, an OBA may yet become as prestigious as an OBE.

While the ritzier end of the international art and antiques market continues to thrive, spare a thought for the more modestly priced end of the industry. The smaller provincial auctions, dealers and fairs may not attract quite so many column inches, but there is encouraging activity here too. Last week it was announced that well-known UK fairs entrepreneur Sue Ede has acquired the popular Bath Decorative Antiques Fair from Bath-based dealer Robin Coleman, who has organized it for the past 23 years. Patrick Macintosh, a Sherborne-based furniture dealer and stalwart exhibitor at the Bath fair over many years, said, "As a founder exhibitor at Bath I feel very much part of the setup and will be really sad to see Robin step down. I have exhibited at Sueʼs fairs in the past; she is a consummate professional but with a kind heart and our interests at the fore — just like Robin — and I know she will preserve the style and spirit of the fair going forward."

And so from Bath to Benin. This week saw the opening of Cargoland — an exhibition at London's October Gallery of new work by Benin-born contemporary artist Romuald Hazoumé. In recent years, Hazoumé has garnered a broad international reputation as one of the most exciting young contemporary artists to emerge from West Africa. While he is wide-ranging in his concerns, one of his signature approaches is to take discarded petrol cans, kettles and other objects and apply various found materials to turn them into masks. His work thus pays homage on the one hand to the long tradition of so-called African tribal art that exerted a powerful impact on European modern artists such as Picasso and his contemporaries, while at the same time commenting on the socio-economic realities of life in contemporary West Africa.

Some of the recent works comprise petrol cans suspended from battered old motor scooters to form a kind of mechanical tree in an elegant reference to the dangerous practice of running black market petrol across the borders of neighboring Benin and Nigeria. The show continues at October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester St., London until Aug. 11.

Finally, last week saw the annual Cork Street Open when the galleries in historic Cork Street — one of London's most illustrious centers of modern and contemporary art — opened their doors for the evening. Auction Central News dropped in to the Beaux Arts gallery one of the street's longest-established galleries run by Reg and Patricia Singh. They were staging a mixed show by some of their most established artists alongside new work by more emerging talents.

As the wine flowed, visitors mingled among the Lynn Chadwicks and the Elisabeth Frink sculptures, but it was the West Country sculptor Simon Allen who was attracting most attention. Allen's beautifully crafted wall sculptures carved from wood and covered in silver and gold leaf have been winning admirers internationally in recent years. The Beaux Arts show included a new work by Allen entitled Pollen.

By closing time it was works by Elisabeth Frink and Simon Allen that had found buyers. The show continues until Sept. 1.

London Eye: May 2012

Winthrop's meticulously dense, highly idiosyncratic drawings and designs will form one of the more unusual attractions of the 12th edition of Master Drawings London—the capital-wide event in which specialist drawings dealers from around the world show a broad range of works from the Renaissance to the present at galleries throughout Mayfair and St. James. Winthrop's work will be on display at Day & Faber's gallery at 14 Old Bond St. for the duration of the drawings festival from June 27 to July 5.

Meanwhile, rather more typical of the sort of thing for which Master Drawings London has become known over the years, is British modernist painter William Orpen's vigorous Self Portrait seated on a cliff top, on display with Jean-Luc Baroni in Mason's Yard, St. James, and Salvator Rosa's A Standing Halberdier in pen and brown ink and brown wash, which will be offered by Stephen Ongpin, also based in Mason's Yard. Master Drawings London is nothing if not varied.

It is a truism frequently repeated these days that the art market is now largely "event-driven," which is another way of saying that fairs have become the motor powering a good deal of international art commerce. London in June veritably explodes with art and antiques fairs and this year the more important ones will be hoping to benefit from the "Olympic bounce" of the London 2012 Games.

If a group of dynamic London dealers had not moved swiftly to fill the vacuum, London would still be mourning the demise of the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair of fond memory, which folded in 2009 after 75 glorious years. In the event, the Masterpiece fair, now in its third year, not only filled the gap left by the Grosvenor, but delivered an even more spectacular international display that confirms the rude health of the luxury, blue-chip end of the art market. This year's Masterpiece provides further evidence, if any were needed, of the ever-widening gap between ultrahigh net worth individuals, those with investable assets of more than $30 million, and everyone else.

As if to drive that point home, this year's fair, located in a purpose-built pavilion in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea from June 28 to July 4, includes a print of one of the most expensive paintings ever sold — Edvard Munch's The Scream. This extremely rare lithograph from 1895 will be on the stand of Oslo-based dealer Kaare Berntsen whose entire Masterpiece display will be devoted to Munch's work. Original Scream prints of this kind have only been offered at auction twice in the last 20 to 30 years. The Munch Museum in Oslo inform us that this impression is one of only 26 such prints and one of very few which includes both the artist's signature and an inscribed poem. Those features have contributed to its price tag of "approximately £2 million" ($3.1 million).

It is futile to even attempt to summarize the extraordinary panoply of treasures on display at Masterpiece, but typical of the quality on offer is the only known example of an oversize Cary "terraqueous" globe that maps the 1839 expedition in the Great Northwestern Passage—complete with rediscovered documents, maps and photographs. This will be offered by Butchoff Antiques, while Whitfield Fine Art will show a newly discovered and fully authenticated Caravaggio, shown for the first time in the UK since its recent rediscovery. Painted around 1600 for Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani, this masterful portrait of Saint Augustine uses the same model who featured as one of the apostles in the National Gallery’s Supper at Emmaus, one of many works that Clovis Whitfield brilliantly analyses in his recently published scholarly book on the artist, Caravaggio's Eye (Holberton, London 2011).

The increasingly global, multicultural nature of the art market has become one of its most notable features in recent years. London may have slipped from its once seemingly unassailable position as one of the top two international art market hubs (alongside New York) both of which have now been overtaken by China. It remains, however, a vibrant and incredibly multicultural center of art commerce as the next month will demonstrate. This week, Russia's wealthy will once again be in force to contest the sales of Russian art offered by Christie's, Sotheby's and MacDougall's and doubtless many will remain to peruse the plethora of fairs that follow soon after. Meanwhile, Islamic and Middle Eastern art are also powering their way up the league tables as Qatar and other Gulf states stake their claim to cultural supremacy.

That crosscultural theme is revealed in a new work commissioned specifically for another important London art fair happening this month — Art Antiques London — taking place for the third year in a specially built pavilion opposite the Royal Albert Hall in Hyde Park from June 13-20. New York gallerist Jane Kahan has commissioned the Islamic artist Ahmed Moustafa to create a new Aubusson tapestry titled Frolicking Horses, which will be priced "in the mid-six figures" at the fair. A coming together of an American-based dealer, an Egyptian artist, and a French tapestry company at a London fair — it's hard to imagine a more eloquent expression of the hybrid nature of today's contemporary art market.

Another interesting trans-Atlantic connection appears in an auction scheduled to take place in Edinburgh, Scotland in September. The ambitious Edinburgh forms of auctioneers, Lyon & Turnbull, have won the prestigious instructions to disperse the contents of the Greenwich Village, N.Y., home of Donald and Eleanor Taffner. Mr. and Mrs. Taffner were independent television producers responsible for bringing successful television shows to the American public, including Three's Company, Too Close for Comfort and The Benny Hill Show. They were also responsible for classic British productions such as My Family and As Time Goes By.

However, it is the Taffners' love of Caledonian art and culture, and most specifically the work of the Glasgow School of artists and designers, led by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, that makes the forthcoming auction so fascinating. Being such passionate collectors of Glasgow art and design and of the paintings of the Scottish Colourists, the Taffner's New York home turned out to brimful of works that will be keenly contested in September. It is some time since such an important collection of Glaswegian Art Nouveau came to market. Highlights include a watercolor landscape executed in France by Charles Rennie Mackintosh titled Boultenère, which reveals the Glaswegian designer as one of the finest watercolorists of his generation. It is estimated at £80,000-120,000 ($127,000-$190,000), while a self-portrait by the highly collectible Sir John Lavery, showing himself in the company of the young Shirley Temple, is expected to fetch around £30,000-50,000 ($47,000-$79,500).