The live auction industry is vigorous, growing and making a positive impact on most American consumers, according to research findings announced recently by the National Auctioneers Association (NAA). Representing the first time that the economic impact of the live auction industry has been charted on the American commercial landscape, the study, compiled by research firms MORPACE International and Harris Interactive®, documented that live auctions account for $203.2 billion a year in sales, including raising $13.4 billion for charities. It also noted that more than 50 percent of Americans have attended live auctions, and the reason they do so is because live auctions are fun and are good places to find favorable purchase prices. The 200-page report states: the biggest business categories are automobiles ($79 billion) and combined real estate categories ($42 billion); 2003 sales of $203.2 billion represent a strong four percent jump over the $189.8 billion in 2002 sales; 79 percent of professional auctioneers participated in a charity auction in 2003. The top reasons Americans attend live auctions are the excrdf_Descriptionent of getting a good price (53 percent), they like to see what types of purchases are available (51 percent) and they get great purchase value (51 percent). Another interesting finding was that live-auction buyers spend almost twice as much as online buyers ($988 versus $475). The study results were announced on July 17 at the NAA’s 55th International Auctioneers Conference and Show in Madison, Wis.

UK’s Oxford University has received a gift from the Khalili Family Trust worth more than $4 million to create The Khalili Research Center (KRC) for the Art and Material Culture of the Middle East and to endow its core activities in perpetuity. The KRC, which is due to open early in 2005, will be located at the heart of the University, near the Sackler Library, the Oriental Institute and the Ashmolean Museum. The gift will allow the renovation, development, furnishing and equipping of the premises as a gift in kind. This will include study-tutorial rooms, seminar rooms, a visiting researchers’ room, open plan work area for research students, archival and IT rooms and self-contained accommodation for visiting scholars. In addition, the gift will provide the endowment in perpetuity of running the costs of the KRC and includes administrative support and the director’s fund. The KRC brings together some of the worlds leading scholars in the fields of Islamic art and material culture, whose expertise ranges from ceramics and metalwork, painting and iconography, textiles and carpet studies, to archaeology, numismatics and monetary history, to the interaction between Christian and Islamic cultures in the medieval Mediterranean.

Miami officials are searching for a charcoal sketch by Pablo Picasso that was stolen from a luxury yacht undergoing repairs in a Miami River boatyard, Miami-Dade County police told the Associated Press. The sketch, a partial draft of Picasso’s painting “Les Trois Danseuses,” was stolen from a 147-foot Trident motor yacht dry-docked at the Jones Boat Yard, police said. Employees of Fairwinds, Inc., the company that owns the yacht and sketch, saw a slender bearded man in a turquoise hat running from the ship with the artwork in his hands. They chased the man through the boatyard, but he jumped into a waiting car and escaped, according to a police report. Depicting a nude woman with outstretched arms, the sketch is worth about $200,000, officials said.

The Museum of Modern Art will reopen its midtown Manhattan building on Saturday, November 20, commemorating the museum’s 75th anniversary and heralding the completion of the most extensive rebuilding and renovation project in MoMA’s history. The new museum nearly doubles the capacity of the former building, encompassing approximately 630,000 square feet of new and renovated space on six floors and providing expanded facilities for special exhibition, public programs, educational outreach and scholarly research. On opening day, admission to the museum will be free of charge. The renovated and expanded museum was designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.

Executive director Patricia Leach of The Hermitage, Nashville, Tenn., recently stated that “Opening the ‘Calico & Chintz’ exhibit formally launches our role as the first Smithsonian Institution Affiliate Museum in Middle Tennessee – a goal we have been working towards for over a year.” The Hermitage is one of only four venues in the United States to host this exhibit.

Following a short test period – May through July – Stella Show Mgmt. Co. has announced that its online dealer application system is working well. Dealers reapplying for shows in which they have participated previously use a short version of the online form. New applicants must fill in a few more lines of information with references.