Art and antiques news from 2015

In Germany, software billionaire Hasso Plattner has become the latest collector to demonstrate opposition to the proposed cultural property law changes.

Bonhams have announced changes in their senior management structure.

Following the success of last year’s Oxford conference for art and antiques professionals, Jeremy Lamond of Halls and Rupert Toovey of Toovey’s have announced the 2015 event will be held on Friday and Saturday, September 11-12.

The Wedgwood Collection has gone back on public display now a £34m museum redevelopment is complete.

JUST a month before their first scheduled sale, online auctioneers Fine Art Bourse have gone into receivership.

A large marine painting by Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917) showing oyster fishing off the Exmoor coast has been bought by The Museum of Somerset.

Coin specialists AH Baldwin & Sons are encouraging their customers to sign the petition opposing an amendment to the controversial German Cultural Property and Heritage Protection Law.

Paperweights from makers such as Caithness, Mdina, Selkirk, Wedgwood and Whitefriars go under the hammer at auctioneers Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on August 7.

Details have been unveiled of the second Art Business Conference to be held at the Church House Conference Centre in London on September 3.

The 2015 NAVA Auctioneer of the Year competition takes place on September 23 at the Oxford Belfry.

A silver medal awarded to a lifeboatman who rescued sailors from a sinking ship in hurricane-force winds off the Kent coast in 1891 is to be sold at Canterbury Auction Galleries.

Yellow-ground wares from the Vincennes soft-paste porcelain workshops are great rarities.

Exhibitors at British showground fairs must pay 20% VAT on pitch rentals, a tribunal has decided.

Dutch online auction business Catawiki has raised $82m to build its business.

As dealers’ and buyers’ thoughts turn more to Pinot Grigio by the pool than art and antiques in August, only a few fairs rattle around to provide solace for those eager to earn or spend some money.

The Battle of Waterloo bicentenary has sparked a number of special auctions and dealer shows.

The antiques industry is being called on to take part in a consultation to reform the law governing the sale and ownership of antique firearms.

A London dealer has welcomed a new wide-ranging bill aimed at amending the law passed in the US last year banning the commercial trade in elephant ivory.

A photo album showing the former King Edward VIII giving Nazi salutes is on offer for the first time in 30 years, auctioneers Morgan Evans have revealed.

Opposition to controversial new laws governing cultural heritage in Germany is gathering pace. Auctioneers, dealers and collectors are backing a petition ‘preserving the right to privately collect’ and calling for German the government to rethink its proposals.