News and updates from around the arts and auction community:

• The maiolica tradition flourished in Italy from the 15th to 17th century, and the decorative wares produced during that period are considered a serious form of Renaissance art. An exhibition opened today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that features their world-renowned maiolica collection. [Read more from The Met]

• An auction house in South Dakota is selling 800 license plates with examples from every year since the state first began issuing tags in 1917. The old plates are especially desirable to vintage car buffs who want a license plate that matches the year of their vehicle’s manufacture. [Read more from KEVN-TV]

• The recent theft of a revered Bodhisattva statue with 1,113 eyes and 1,113 hands has called attention to the need for increased protection of Vietnam’s national treasures. The head of Vietnam’s Relics Preservation Institute expressed his views about what must be done. [Read more from VietnamNet]

• Next month Christie’s Paris will auction the gun Paul Verlaine used to shoot his close friend and fellow poet Arthur Rimbaud in 1873. Fortunately, Rimbaud incurred only a wrist injury, but Verlaine was imprisoned for two years. [Read more from Yahoo News]

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