LVMH withdraws from art auction world

PARIS, March 3 (UPI) -- The art auction world is slimmer by one, with the luxury goods conglomerate LVMH selling its controlling shares in the French firm Tajan to Rodart.

French press reports say Rodart is owned by a wealthy unidentified American woman.

LVMH, which owns Luis Vuitton among other firms, purchased Phillips, a London-New York auction house, in 1999 with an eye to challenging Sotheby's and Christie's, the leading international art auction houses. It originally bought Tajan to merge it with Phillips.

Control of Phillips was sold to auctioneers Simon de Pury and Daniella Luxembourg last year when the business failed to prosper. LVMH retained a minority stock holding in the firm but that also was sold later to the auctioneering team.

The same pattern seems to be emerging in the sale of Tajan stock. LVMH has sold controlling interest to Rodart, but is retaining a minority position.

Francois Tajan, a member of the auction house family, has identified the personage behind Rodart as a wealthy Romanian-born American woman collector "who is very energetic and knows a network of international collectors."