Art and antiques news from 2010

THE home of West Midlands toy specialists Astons is the grade II listed Baylies's Charity School, on Tower Street, Dudley.

THE National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) will hold its annual Forum for chattels auctioneers and valuers at The Belfry golf and leisure resort in the West Midlands on April 26.

ONE of the North East’s best-known auctioneers faces a substantial fine and a possible prison sentence after being charged over the sale of an Edwardian collection of birds’ eggs.

INTERNATIONAL Antiques and Collectors’ Fairs (IACF), the owners of the Newark and Ardingly showground events, have announced plans to hold a regular one-day fair at the RAF Swinderby site.

IF the mood at the opening of the TEFAF Maastricht fair on March 11 was tempered with a note of caution, this was dramatically heightened after a power cut plunged the halls into complete darkness just as the vernissage was getting underway.

Five months after ATG revealed the reattribution of La Bella Principessa to Leonardo da Vinci, the man who spotted it is ready to unveil another major find.

Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood (BHL) are not seeking to recover a cache of gold and jewellery accidentally sold as part of a lot in their 2006 sale of Agatha Christie effects.

SOTHEBY’S staged the most lucrative art sale ever in the Netherlands on March 8 when they offered a 161-lot selection of contemporary art from the corporate collection of British American Tobacco.

DRAMATICALLY overshooting a £2000-3000 estimate, this small unsigned Mannerist oil on slate depicting Venus and Cupid attracted the attention of at least ten bidders at Rosebery's of West Norwood, South London on March 9.

EWBANK Clarke Gammon Wellers of Surrey have extended their influence south west by forming a strategic alliance with Bournemouth auction house Riddetts.

BEARNES Hampton & Littlewood have held their first sale at the newly renovated Dowell Street, Honiton saleroom which they took over from Bonhams' in January.

BBC Two are seeking contestants for Antiques Master, a new primetime antiques show which aims to find the most knowledgeable amateur antiques expert in the UK.

IMPORTS and exports of art and antiques for the UK shrank by around a quarter in 2009. In what proved to be one of the most difficult trading years since the early 1990s, exports across the globe fell by 24.3% to just over £2bn, while imports dropped by 26.2% to £1.86bn.

OF all the many subjects painted by Harry Davis during his long tenure at the Royal Worcester factory, among the rarest and most desirable are polar bears in an Arctic landscape.

THE public protest over the replacement of antiques shops in Portobello by fashion stores and other chains is gathering pace.

THE 1953 FA Cup Final will forever be known as the Matthews Final.It was while playing for Blackpool against Bolton Wanderers that the legendary winger Sir Stanley Matthews (1915-2000) gave his career-defining performance and won the only major honour of a long career.

RUNNING a tighter ship and targeting commissions to bring a better yield have helped Sotheby’s achieve the second biggest quarterly profits in the company’s history.

B2B Events have won a three-year contract to run four or five antiques and collectors’ fairs annually at the Detling showground.

Culture minister Margaret Hodge has placed a temporary export ban on Raphael's Head of a Muse after ruling that an attempt should be made to keep the £26m drawing in the UK.

SEVERE weather conditions have badly damaged the marquee which Antique Forum use for their six annual weekend fairs held at Trentham Gardens, near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.