Is time running out for Antiquorum? The Geneva-based watch auctioneer axed its September sale and has changed hands yet again: American businessman Gerald Chase is the new owner, succeeding Forever Most Investment, of Hong Kong, which acquired it only in May. The former market leader also closed down its Paris bureau, but denies it is in crisis, insisting that the September cancellation reflects a “change of strategy” in favor of a “bigger and more important sale” in November. Some observers are not buying that. “They have problems,” says one insider. “They have lost the confidence of vendors.” Meanwhile, founder Osvaldo Patrizzi, who quit the firm under acrimonious circumstances last summer, is holding the debut sale of his new company, Patrizzi & Co., on November 18—two days after Antiquorum’s. But he has problems of his own: Just months after helping to launch Patrizzi’s enterprise, coo Mark Schumacher quit in late July, and has not been replaced. He and Patrizzi both insist that the parting was amicable.

"Darkest Hour?" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's October 2008 Table of Contents.