A handout photo, provided to the media on Monday, April 21, 2008, shows designer Ron Arad's 'Early Big Easy Volume 2 for 2 Sofa' 1989. Source: Phillips via Bloomberg News

According to Bloomberg News -- a Ron Arad sofa may fetch up to 80,000 pounds ($159,000) at a London sale this week that aims to tap demand for ``design art.'' The steel work looks amazing -- just don't sit in it.

``If you're sitting on a polished metal sofa with rivets on your jeans you have to be careful,'' said Ben Williams, a design specialist at Phillips de Pury which is selling the Arad couch, titled ``Big Easy Volume 2 for 2.'' ``Sitting on these pieces tends to be reserved for special occasions. They're usually just looked at as a sculptural element in the room.''

Arad's is not the only chair that must be sat in with care. Similar issues are raised by Brazilians Fernando and Humberto Campana, whose 2005 ``Alligator Chair,'' made out of children's cuddly alligator toys, may fetch 25,000 pounds at Phillips.

Other objects at the April 24 sale of 246 lots also blur the line between design and art. A carbon-fiber table by Australian- born Marc Newson may fetch up to 200,000 pounds. Phillips's inaugural design sale in London, at its new Howick Place auction rooms, has a total estimate of 1.4 million pounds to 2 million pounds.

``This is the first time we've been able to showcase `design art' to a London audience,'' said Alexander Payne, Phillips de Pury's global director of design, credited with coining the term ``design art'' in 2001 to promote a Phillips sale in New York.

Newson's three-legged ``Black Hole'' table, dating from 2006, was made in France in an edition of 10, according to the Phillips catalog. Another example from the edition sold for 235,448 euros ($375,000) with fees at the Paris auctioneers Artcurial in June 2007, said the saleroom result database Artnet.

``London is where it's happening. This is where the energy is,'' said Payne.

In October 2007, Newson's ``Lockheed Lounge'' chair set the auction record for ``design art'' when it sold for 748,500 pounds with fees at Christie's International, London.

Etro Buys Agnew's

Agnew's, one of the oldest fine-art dealerships in London, said it sold its Old Bond Street premises to the Italian fashion house Etro.

The gallery, occupied by Agnew's since 1877, will close on July 18, according to an e-mailed statement.

Chairman Julian Agnew said in a telephone interview that the freehold had been sold for a ``significant'' sum.

Etro has a branch on the other side of Old Bond Street and its founder Gerolamo Etro is a collector of Old Master paintings, said his communications director Victoria Hennessy.

``We haven't found a new location yet,'' Agnew said. ``But it will probably be somewhere between Sotheby's and Christie's.''

Agnew said the new gallery would be around half the size of its existing premises. The company was seeking to appoint a new director of contemporary art. About 50 percent of Agnew's business would now be devoted to contemporary and modern British material, he said.

The company has traditionally been associated with Old Master and 19th century British painting, areas that have declined in popularity compared to contemporary art.

Agnew, who turns 65 this year, has no immediate plans to retire. ``I'm seeing this change through. I want to see us settled in our new premises,'' he said.

China Demand

Mainland Chinese collectors have started to invest in top- flight wines from Burgundy, said the Antique Wine Company. On April 19 an anonymous Beijing-based billionaire paid $500,000 for a portfolio of 27 bottles of Romanee-Conti, Burgundy's most fabled and expensive red wine, said the London-based wine merchant.

``This is the first time we've seen the mainland Chinese buying serious Burgundy,'' Managing Director Stephen Williams said in a telephone interview. ``In the past they've tended to concentrate on red Bordeaux.''

Williams said most of his important clients now came from Asia. ``Because of the dollar exchange rate we're finding that Americans are more sellers than buyers at the moment,'' he said.

The portfolio included a case of Romanee-Conti's 1978 ``miracle vintage'' acquired from an American collector, one of only 400 cases produced, Williams said.

``This Chinese client likes to drink great wine. He wants something special,'' Williams said. The portfolio had been bought to be drunk, not as an investment.