Organisations

Oriental art dealer Christian Deydier has been voted in as the new president of the France’s Syndicat National des Antiquaires (National Dealers’ Association) in Paris, defeating book dealer Claude Blaizot by 10 votes to 6. Outgoing president Dominique Chevalier, recently injured in a motorcycle accident, did not stand for re-election.

THE Dutch Ambassador welcomed British and Dutch dealers to a reception at the London embassy on April 24 to celebrate the signing of a formal agreement between two leading trade associations.

PRESSURE from the British Art Market Federation has persuaded the Government to relax Import VAT rules on art that are thought to have damaged legitimate trade.

Auctioneers’ society aims to extend its influence and admit valuers as members: THE Society of Fine Art Auctioneers, concerned over the RICS decision to derecognise the Southampton Institute training courses for the trade, is to vote on approving them itself.

EUROPE’s leading showground events organisers DMG Antiques Fairs have been oiling the wheels of their fixtures, and it is much appreciated at Ardingly where their fair has been going from strength to strength.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association’s annual survey of its 388 members shows that, despite economic jitters, their aggregate turnover rose from £727m in 2000 to an estimated £782m last year.

The Fine Art Valuation degree course at Southampton Institute has lost almost half its teaching staff in the past year with the student intake dropping 60 per cent since 1998.

VICTORIA Borwick, until last autumn director of the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fairs, has joined Florida-based IFAE (International Fine Art Expositions) as a fair director.

UK: LAPADA have announced the appointment of John Newgas from June 1 as chief executive to succeed Malcolm Hord.

In the second major Internet shill bidding case, three people have been charged with running a scheme that boosted the sale prices of hundreds of pieces of Lalique glass auctioned on eBay.

British Art Market Federation lobbying has persuaded the Department of Trade and Industry to provide grants for 13 LAPADA members to exhibit at a Chicago antiques fair.

THE influence of eBay in the online antiques trade has increased further with the announcement of an online deal with sothebys.com.

USA: Butterfields Auctioneers are cutting their Los Angeles staff by more than half as part of a major restructuring programme that will lead to a greater focus on San Francisco.

LAPADA, the Association of Dealers, have been preparing their members with a useful guide on how to adapt to the euro for when they conduct business in Europe.

A DEALER in antique prints has complained to eBay that the promotion of reproduction prints in the antiques category is slowly destroying the online market for originals.

LAPADA, the UK’s largest association of professional art and antiques dealers, is pioneering a new scheme that could see it merge with a leading European association.

UPWARDS of 200 invited guests arrived at the Tate Britain on Tuesday night last week to celebrate one of the most notable successes in the art trade in recent years.The occasion: the fifth anniversary dinner for the British Art Market Federation.

CHECKOUT, the payment feature introduced by eBay last month to streamline transactions, is to be altered following a campaign against it by sellers.

THE British Art Market Federation has been named the winner in the Best Public Affairs Campaign category of trade magazine PR Week’s annual awards scheme.

Listed on eBay on October 15 with an opening bid of just $75, within seven days this gold plastic PEZ space gun dating from the late 1950s/early ’60s had attracted a final bid of $6262 (£4540). At today’s prices, that’s more than 22 times the cost of an ounce of real gold.