Art and antiques news from 2015

A simple pencil message on a wooden sextant case sold at a London auction tells a story of desperate shipwrecked sailors adrift in a dinghy and running out of food and water.

Penman Fairs will launch a new London event for 2016 called ‘Art, Antiques & Design’.

The German Cultural Property and Heritage Protection Law (Kulturschutzgesetz) is due to be debated in the German Bundestag next spring after a “defused” draft of the law received cabinet approval on November 4.

International Antiques & Collectors Fairs (IACF) have added the monthly antiques and vintage fairs held at Sandown Park Racecourse to their roster of events.

Paris Tableau, the specialist Old Masters fair, announced midway through its run this month that from next year it would become part of the new annual Biennale des Antiquaires.

Sotheby’s have begun a voluntary redundancy scheme as they look to cut costs as part of their restructuring plan.

A late 18th century bust of the Goddess Diana which was looted from the Royal Lazienki Palace in Warsaw by the Nazis has been returned to Poland after emerging at auction in Vienna.

Stakeholders in the art market are being asked to participate in a project seeking to gauge the effect of a total ban on the sale of ivory works of art in the UK.

The primary draw to the regions – rather than London – during last week’s glut of Asian works of art sales was the auction titled ‘In Pursuit of the Scholar’s Spirit’ conducted by Duke’s of Dorchester.

Christie’s have announced major changes to their antiquities sales calendar in London and New York.

“There are 12 symbols in the Chinese language for the word fake – and each means something slightly different”.

When two academics spotted a work on the stand of the Lyons dealer Galerie Michel Descours on the opening night of the dedicated Old Masters fair Paris Tableau last week, they immediately felt it was a work that should be in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lyon.

A lifeline has been thrown to the 60 dealers at the Gloucester Antiques Centre on Gloucester Quays which closed earlier this month with six weeks’ notice given to quit.

The large sums of money changing hands at the top end of the Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art market was underlined at the latest auctions in New York.

Christie’s latest cross-category sale entitled The Artist’s Muse set the second highest ever auction price for a work of art when Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché (Reclining nude) sold at $152m (£104.8m).

A new auction record came for American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) when 'Nurse' was knocked down at $85m (£58.6m) at Christie’s cross-category sale entitled The Artist’s Muse earlier this week.

Following a long legal battle, London dealer Joost van den Bergh has successfully overturned a controversial customs decision to seize three rare 17th century ivories.

Police are appealing for help from the antiques trade to trace two men captured on CCTV at the scene of a watches burglary in London.

The Gloucester Antiques Centre has been saved by a local property developer after the 90 dealers at the centre were given six-weeks notice by their landlords the Peel Group to quit the three-storey premises on Gloucester Quays.

Welsh auctioneers Peter Francis set a new house record when this 8in (19cm) celadon glazed vase sold via the-saleroom.com to a bidder from mainland China for £114,500.