Art and antiques news from 2006

Renowned Bristol-born graffiti artist Robert Banks, better known as Banksy (b.1975), has made himself into a globally-recognised phenomenon by planting his subversive guerrilla artwork in the world’s best galleries, museums, and amusement parks.

IT would have been the most expensive picture ever sold. At $139m, the private deal between two American billionaire buddies would have upped the record high for any painting by $4m. But the deal is now off.

eBay have posted a 31 per cent year on year increase in turnover of $1.449bn for the third quarter of 2006.

“THE Shelley Group has only one public fair each year and this is its 20th staging since the group was organised back in 1986. This must be a pretty good record for a collectors’ group,” says the group’s Martin Kent.

DEALERS from all over Europe have launched a campaign to get rid of the resale right enjoyed by the heirs of dead artists.

When Sotheby’s sold the first portion of the Wardington library of atlases and geographies last year, London dealer Bernard Shapero set a cartographic auction record by paying £1.3m for the ‘Doria’ atlas, a superb collection of so-called Lafreri School maps of the latter part of the 16th century.

Stolen art and antiques valued at tens of millions remain at large despite the arrests of 14 people in connection with a string of burglaries at English stately homes. Police have asked the antiques trade to remain vigilant.

The reform of auction law forced itself to the top of the agenda when delegates from SYMEV, France’s national auctioneers association, sat down at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris on October 3 for their annual conference.

Sotheby’s New York was closed in the afternoon of October 11 in the wake of the plane crash that killed the two people onboard, injured 21 and briefly raised fears of another terrorist attack on the city.

In 1862, the English missionary Father William Duncan brought around 70 Tsimshian Christian converts to an abandoned Native village and established a model Church of England mission settlement at Metlakatla in Northern British Columbia.

Giuseppe Eskenazi, London’s pre-eminent dealer in Chinese works of art, has been appointed a Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d’honneur for services to the arts.

Luxury goods firm LVMH, owners of Louis Vuitton and Dior, have filed a lawsuit against eBay contending that most of the products on the site purporting to carry their top brands are fakes.

Sotheby’s Café is celebrating its tenth birthday with the publication of a cookbook for the cultured.

DMG make it a trade event as they revamp portfolio across the board

Spink have added musical instruments to their portfolio by taking an equity stake in Brompton’s Auctioneers. They will operate from Spink’s newly expanded premises at 29 Southampton Row in London WC1, starting with a sale on November 6.

CHRISTIE’S are to centralise all Italian sales in Milan and will concentrate on Contemporary and Modern art, Old Masters and jewellery.

EBay (UK) have given permission for members of the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme to monitor the trade in antiquities on the website.

This early 18th century Channel Islands silver punch bowl, measuring 11in (28cm) in diameter and weighing 52oz, was among the highlights of a 100-lot single owner collection of silver, stored in a Channel Islands bank for over 30 years, offered by Martel Maides of Guernsey on September 28.

LAST month at Hemswell Antiques Centres in Gainsborough, north of Lincoln, whose website proclaims it to be the largest antiques centre in Europe with 300 dealers in three buildings and 1000 antiques available online, ten of the centres’ customers were offered the opportunity to learn about antique furniture from an experienced dealer.

SOON after setting up on Friday morning a few weeks ago at Shepton Mallet a flash flood swept through the Edmund Rack building leaving stallholders hastily packing up again and huddling by the entrance.