Switzerland

The Kunstmuseum Bern’s announcement that it would accept the Gurlitt bequest (aside from any Nazi-looted art) has been followed by a pledge by Germany’s culture minister to return the disputed Matisse and other works to the families of their original owners.

Sotheby’s Geneva managed to grab the headlines when the Henry Graves Supercomplication set a record for a timepiece at auction.

Despite countless offers to leave France, Suzanne Belperron (1900-83) remained in German-occupied Paris throughout the Second World War – a jewellery maker and a Resistance fighter.

Sotheby’s have had to buy back the 59.60 carat flawless fancy vivid pink diamond they sold in Geneva last November for a world record $83m.

Sotheby’s have announced that they are to offer a flawless 59.6-carat pink diamond for sale in Geneva on November 13 with a record asking price of $60m.

SOTHEBY’S set a new auction record for a jewel in Geneva when a 24.78-carat fancy intense pink diamond sold to London jeweller Laurence Graff at SFr40.5m (£25.6m) plus premium.

THE battle over Antiquorum, the world’s leading clock and watch auction house, has stepped up a gear, with significant moves from both sides.

Antiquorum, the world’s leading watch auctioneers, insist it will be “business as usual” following the shock departure this August of the Geneva firm’s charismatic founder, Osvaldo Patrizzi, after a row with Japanese owners Artist House Holdings, who acquired Antiquorum for a reported $30m in 2006.

Cadogan Tate Fine Art have launched a new weekly transport service from London and Paris to Switzerland to meet the growing demand for discreet fine art transport.

THE Swiss authorities have launched a criminal investigation into scam guide firms and their associated debt recovery agencies.

This year’s jewellery sales in the upscale Swiss winter resort of St Moritz – an annual fixture since 1995 – again fomented plenty of interest among the well-heeled private clientele in town at the height of the skiing season.

ANOTHER Greek author whom Aldus published was Aristotle, whose Opera Omnia appeared in a five-part, seven-volume edition between 1495 and 1498.

GLASSWORKS by Emile Gallé thought to be worth over £1.5m have been stolen from a Swiss museum. Thieves seized 15 items by the French master craftsman in the raid on the Neumann Foundation, housed in the castle of Gingins overlooking Lake Geneva, on October 27.

SWITZERLAND hosts a new international fair later this year with the launch of The Basel Ancient Art Fair from November 12 to 17 at the historic Wenkenhof, just outside the city of Basel.

AN auction of the most comprehensive collection of the ancient coins of Olympia in the year that Athens hosts the modern Olympic Games is likely to meet with very considerable success.

THE Numismatica Ars Classica (15% buyer’s premium plus local sales tax) sale in Zurich on May 12 was no less wonderful than most of its predecessors. We have become used to prices which draw gasps from this house.

MAY is traditionally when the Swiss wheel out their most spectacular sales of Classical coins. This year’s offering (981 lots) came on May 10-11 at Leu (Zurich).

CULTURA Basel, Switzerland’s only international antiques fair, has been abandoned and there seems no likelihood of reviving the critically-acclaimed fixture.

SINCE the Second World War, Switzerland has been the world’s premier marketplace for antiquities, so it is no surprise that it is this discipline which not only dominates but defines Cultura, the international Swiss fair in Basel which ran at the city’s exhibition halls from November 14 to 19.

Basel fair shows its mettle: NOW established as a notable international fixture this year’s Cultura, to be held in Basel, Switzerland from November 14 to 19, is a month later and a day shorter than in the past, and looking at the exhibitor list of 55 dealers it looks stronger than ever.