France’s National Public Auctions Advisory (Conseil des ventes volontaires de meubles aux enchères publiques) has published its Annual Report 2009 on the voluntary public auction sector.On 18 June 2010, Francine Mariani-Ducray, President of the Conseil des ventes volontaires de meubles aux enchères publiques, presented the Conseil’s 8th Annuel Report on the economic activity of the public auction sector during 2009.As in previous years, the report details the actions and initiatives pursued by the Conseil in the framework of its role as Regulator of the public auction sector, a role involving three principal duties: control of access to the market, monitoring and supervising the market’s players and training of future authorisedauctioneers. The report also contains an analysis of the claims received by the Conseil from clients of auction companies, whether buyers or sellers, as well as an analysis of the current evolution of the legislative framework governing the French auction sector.For the second consecutive year, the Conseil has also pursued and extended its mission as an economic observatory of the auction sector. This year, the analysis of the national market, based on survey data from French auction companies, is accompanied by a new chapter on the international auction market based on data collected for 11,000 auction companies worldwide and forming a unique database of global auction market information.As a result of this work, the report offers a ‘map’ of global auction activity around the world as well as a number of useful rankings such as the world’s top 20 auction companies operating in the Art & Collectibles sector in 2009, by revenue .The report is published by Documentation Française.It may also be consulted on the website of the Conseil des ventes at: www.conseildesventes.fr