2013

The competition for private sales among the leading auction rooms will step up during the coming weeks as both Sotheby’s and Christie’s hold exhibitions at their new private galleries in London.

Borro have introduced a concierge service to help make their asset-backed loans programme much easier and quicker to use for clients across the UK.

More than 2000 objects from a Dorset toy museum will come under the hammer in November.

The University of London is reported to have cancelled plans to auction off a rare set of four early Shakespeare folios to raise funds for further acquisitions.

An autographed letter signed from Charlotte Brontë doubled its estimate to make £24,000 at Lyon & Turnbull’s September 4 rare books, maps and manuscripts sale in Edinburgh.

A small painting bought as part of a £30 “job lot” at auction has turned out to be an original by the 19th century British artist John Constable and valued at £250,000.

With the Royal Academy opening a major show of Australian art in London on September 21, Christie’s will hope the added attention on this sector will yield benefit at their specialist sale being held in the Capital the week after.

A remarkable archive of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s personal property makes its second visit to the auction room in less than a decade this month when it is offered by Heritage Auctions in New York.

Nelson Events and IACF have announced that they will start charging reduced rate VAT on stands at their fairs from October 1. In a letter to ATG this week, they explain why they have been forced into this move, albeit reluctantly.

Antiques traders in Portobello Market have been praised by police for their help in catching a vicious gang who have now been jailed for a string of terrifying robberies netting jewellery worth nearly £250,000.

Speculation over the future of Sotheby’s has been rife since Wall Street hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb’s firm Third Point announced it had acquired a 5.7% stake in the firm.

Christie’s, the first international auction house to be granted a licence to operate independently in mainland China, have announced the date of their first auction.

Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions are to hold a pilot sale of Contemporary Chinese art in partnership with Yourun International (UK) Art Investment & Management Ltd, a London-based arts and cultural institution specialising in promoting emerging Chinese artists.

Is this the rarest of all Star Wars figures? The figure known by collectors as the Vinyl Cape Jawa was one of the original series of a dozen figures that accompanied the release of the film in 1978 (jawas are the hooded creatures with glowing eyes who buy and sell droids).

After 17 years of selling tweed suits, smoking jackets and hunting kits at Bertie Wooster, George Cazenove closed his eccentric vintage shop in Chelsea.

A number of oil paintings by Sir Kyffin Williams (1918-2006) gave a major fillip to Rogers Jones’ first sale in their new Cardiff saleroom. The results included the highest price ever seen for one of his works sold at auction.

Improved trading in the USA made art and antiques retailers Mallett more profitable in the first half of 2013, despite a slight fall in overall turnover compared to the same period last year.

This Scottish provincial George II communion cup topped Lyon & Turnbull’s latest silver sale in Edinburgh.

A total commitment to clear and unambiguous cataloguing is the driving force behind a new auction business specialising in oak and country furniture in the North Yorkshire Dales.

A top official from the Border Agency has been added to the list of speakers at SOFAA’s September 2 seminar on the impact of the new endangered species guidelines.