Page 8 - JOA-Apr-22

WORLD MARKETPLACE NEWS with Managing Editor Judy Gonyeau

ECOMMERCEBYTES.COM – UPS ANTIQUE TRADES GAZETTE – A number of UK auction houses
posted its best year ever in 2021 and have stopped taking bids from buyers in Russia in response to Vladimir
announced substantial price hikes in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Auction house Phillips, owned by Russia’s
2022, according to the New York luxury goods conglomerate
Attorney General’s office. It is not Mercury Group since 2008,
unusual for regulators to go after manu- announced that it would
facturers and retailers, but the NY AG is donate all of its buyer’s and
including shipping firms as part of vendor’s premiums from its
her investigation into possible “price 20th century and contem-
gouging and pandemic profiteering,” she announced on on March 4th. porary art evening sale on
Online marketplaces like Etsy and eBay charge fees on shipping - so March 3 to the Ukrainian
whenever carriers like UPS, FedEx, and the USPS raise rates, online Red Cross Society.
marketplaces receive what amounts to a rate hike of their own. Christie’s said that a “small number” of Russian clients bidding at
its 20th/21st century art auction in London last week had been cleared
through its “stringent client identification and screening process, in full
LYON & TURNBULL – An compliance with regulations.” Museums and galleries have also been
exceptional private collec- reviewing their positions. The current V&A exhibition, due to run until
tion of 150 Lalique perfume May 8, Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution is understood to
bottles proved a near sell-out have a number of pieces on loan from Russian collectors. The museum
at Lyon & Turnbull’s live said: “The V&A remains in contact with the Department for Digital,
online auction on February Culture, Media & Sport on the evolving situation in the Ukraine.”
17. Many bottles brought
record sums as the collection,
assembled over several years ANTIQUES ROADSHOW UK – One guest on the BBC’s Antiques
by a collector who had long Roadshow had a miniature globe that was placed inside a wooden
fallen under the spell of René Lalique, sold for a premium-inclusive walnut shell valued by antiques expert Hilary Kay. However, she ended
total of $862,000. The aggregate was more than double the pre-sale up refusing Hilary’s appraisal following her “mad” valuation of
estimate with the selling rate a near faultless 96%. The next Lalique $5,300-$6,500, stating she would not be selling.
sales are scheduled to take place on April 28 and October 27, 2022. The guest explained her grandfather bought it
decades ago at a house sale and when he died it was
passed onto her father who stored it in one of his cab-
NYC – On March 1, 1,000 pairs of dance shoes made a long trek, all inets. The appraiser noted there were some odd
the way from Rhode Island to Queens. They arrived on busy Northern names written on some of the countries, including
Boulevard in a 56-foot tractor-trailer full of 20 pallets, each holding one called New Holland. The globe was likely made
500 to 600 pairs. Their worth was as a novelty item for English aristocrats interested in
estimated at around $300,000. But geography and astronomy.
you can’t pin a price on dance. A city-
run program, Materials for the Arts,
held the first part of a “great dance PATCH.COM – Garden City NY detectives
shoe giveaway.” Discount retailer arrested a 40-year-old man for possession of
Ocean State Job Lot donated the numerous collectable items including comic
dance shoes, from a toddler’s size 5 to books, baseball cards and jewelry, which were
an adult’s size 13, to be made available at no cost to hundreds of New reported stolen from multiple storage units.
York City-based dancers, dance organizations and public schools. “I The total value of the recovered property was
cannot wait to see these shoes on stages across New York City,” said NYC $96,000. The man was charged with two
Deputy Mayor, Maria Torres-Springer. counts of possession of stolen property.

GLOBAL TIMES – Shanghai has cultivated a vibrant cultural relics and MET NEWS – The Metropolitan Museum of
artworks market, and it is set to become an even more global art trading Art is launching a new podcast series titled
mecca following the unveiling of Frame of Mind: An Art & Wellness Podcast,
the Shanghai International which features uplifting stories from diverse
Antiques and Fine Art Trade individuals about how art supports their well-
Center. “The new center in being, especially during times of struggle and
Shanghai will also bring greater stress. The first episode features siblings Samy
flexibility and assistance for inter- Gálvez and Melina Anderson Gálvez, who
national auction houses, which will immigrated to the United States from Guatemala many years ago, and
be helpful in creating a favorable spent much of their adult lives apart from each other and their family.
trading environment,” Jean Qian, Hear how sending 100 postcards featuring artworks from The Met
Sotheby’s managing director in China told the Global Times, adding that fostered deeper communication and trust between the siblings.
it will also greatly increase Sotheby’s confidence in investing in China.

COLLIDER – Hot Toys releases a Robert
THE IRISH TIMES – An ad for the sale of a stained-glass work from Pattinson Batman and Bat-Signal collectible set
the studio of renowned Irish artist Harry Clarke was on the back page for the upcoming release of Matt Reeves’ new film
of March’s Catholic Intercom magazine, with qualifyiers: First, it states The Batman. It comes with a masked Batman
that “St Peter must go to a suitable Catholic home” and “no traders head sculpt, with interchangeable rolling eye-
or agents may apply” to purchase the work. The sale is being handled balls and three interchangeable lower face
by Abbey Stained Glass Studios, which restored the work. sculpts to show different facial expressions.
6 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles