Art and antiques news from 2006

Next month the Royal Observatory, Greenwich will unveil four new galleries designed to tell the story of precision timekeeping.

A funding package worth £7m has been agreed allowing construction to begin on a new Wedgwood Museum in the heart of the Potteries at the company’s Barlaston headquarters.

Leading numismatic auctioneers and dealers Spink have announced the acquisition of B.J. Dawson Coins. Brian Dawson, who opened his first shop in Bolton, Lancashire and has over 40 years’ experience in the coin trade, will join the firm as director of the coin dealing business for Spink.

Two fine lots of 17th century English pewter greeted New Year bidders in the country.

Ninety-one-year-old John Werner Kluge is the stuff of the American Dream – a German immigrant who amassed his fortune in the States buying radio and television stations.

Christie’s have announced £1.8bn ($3.2bn) in global sales for 2005, the highest total in the firm’s history and more than 30 per cent up on 2004.

Sales at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris rose 16 per cent in 2005 to €414m (£280m), but firms based elsewhere in the city also continued to increase their market share.

Buoyed up by an increasing number of consignments from England, Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull are opening an office in central London.

...and I’ll fight it in the courts if I have to

ST James’s gallery Frost and Reed, founded in 1808, have undergone a management shake-up and will have an increased focus on Contemporary art.

Helped by a £2.6m windfall, Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis emerged from 2005 as the largest-grossing UK provincial saleroom.

AFTER buying two of the most famous flea-markets in Paris, the Duke of Westminster’s property company and their partners say they will undertake new ways of promoting the historic sites.

PARTRIDGE are to relaunch themselves on the fairs scene with a stand at the British Antique Dealers Association fair in March.

18th century French furniture was much in evidence on both sides of the Channel at the end of last year. It was the mainstay of two single-owner collections offered at the height of the pre-Christmas season.