2013

Sotheby’s evening sale of Contemporary art in London was led by a Francis Bacon triptych which sold to a German collector at £12.25m.

Gloucestershire auctioneers Dominic Winter are offering a reward for information leading to the return of 42 lots which were stolen in a smash-and-grab raid on their South Cerney premises.

Mayfair gallery Agnew’s, the 195-year-old family business best known for Old Masters, will close on April 30 after exhibiting for the last time at ‘The European Fine Art Fair’ in Maastricht next month.

The highlight of the recent Decorative Art and Design sale conducted by Sworders of Stansted Mountfitchet was this Wedgwood Fairyland lustre malfrey pot and cover designed by Daisy Makeig-Jones (1881-1945).

Christie’s have decided to close their Haunch of Venison dealership and focus all efforts on what has become the hottest area of competition between them and rivals Sotheby’s.

Paris auction house Piasa are making a bold leap across the Seine and opening a new saleroom on the rue du Bac, thereby becoming the first Parisian auctioneers to hold sales on the Left Bank.

The Design Museum has made its first significant fashion acquisition thanks to a donation by Jill Ritblat through the Art Fund.

An important private collection of Beatrix Potter books, manuscripts, artwork, photographs, figurines and collectables is being offered for sale at Bloomsbury Auctions on February 27.

The Modern and Contemporary art collection accumulated over a 60-year period by singer Andy Williams will be sold at auction later this year.

A 19th/early 20th century totem pole brightly painted and carved with a beaver, a bear, a whale and a surmounted eagle with outspread wings is to go under the hammer at Duke’s of Dorchester in Dorset on February 14.

The latest sales of Impressionist and Modern art in London posted a strong overall performance as private buyers showed a growing appetite for works by major names.

After more than 60 years of being operated by Southwark Council, Bermondsey Antiques Market has received a shot in the arm with the news that the famous Friday market in Bermondsey Square will be run by specialist antiques market operators Sherman & Waterman.

Police are appealing for owners of various antiques to come forward. The items – two brass vases, a gold cup, a Chinese vase, a gold frame of a picture of fruit, a gold frame of a picture of flowers and a gold watch - relate to an on-going criminal investigation. The items are currently in the care of the police.

This Arts and Crafts music cabinet, entered into a recent sale at Robertson’s of Kinbuck, near Dunblane, without reserve, turned out to be a hitherto lost design by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Students of American ceramic history have long been taught that the first successful producers of porcelain in North America were Gousse Bonnin (1741-c.1780) and George Anthony Morris (1741/5-73), who ran the short-lived American China Manufactory in Philadelphia between 1769 and 1772.

Stack’s Bowers Galleries of Irvine, California, have set a new global auction record for a coin at a hammer price of $8.525m (£5.61m).

Peers in the House of Lords have made a last-ditch plea to the Government to scrap plans to review design rights under copyright law.

Dolphin Promotions have sold the long-running ‘Miami National Antiques Show & Sale’ to US Antique Shows, a division of consumer and tradeshow producers GLM.

The collection of close to 500 silver and gold objects donated to the Ashmolean museum in Oxford by the late dealer-collector Michael Wellby has been described as the most important bequest of its type for over a century.

Results from the first timed auction on the-saleroom.com, hosted last month for McTear’s of Glasgow, indicate that this style of selling has a useful role to play alongside established live auctions of fine art and antiques.