2016

The largest shareholder in Beijing’s China Guardian Auctions has also become the largest single shareholder in Sotheby’s. Cheng Dongshen, chairman and chief executive of Taikang Life Insurance, purchased $230m or 8m Sotheby’s shares across June and July and now has a 13.5% stake.

More than 60 works from the Frank Cohen Collection are set to be exhibited at Fortnum & Mason’s Mayfair location this autumn.

The Art Loss Register has doubled its number of subscribers over the past three years.

Auction House Kruger Gibbons have ceased trading after four years in business.

When American amateur golfer Robert E Hunter won a gold medal at the 1904 Olympics he could not have ever envisaged that the next chance to compete in the Games would be 2016.

Travis Perkins have issued a call to preserve Newson’s Timber Yard after 175 years in business.

The Golden Age of Polar exploration is a constant source of fascination. Essentially, this period is the first three decades of the 20th century, when names such as Shackleton, Scott, Amundsen and Peary came to fame.

If you started your career in art and antiques in 1971, then you share a birthday (but no mid-life crisis) with Antiques Trade Gazette.

FORMER model and songwriter Zoe Durrant launched her Little Vintage Lover Fairs in Norfolk in 2008, holding the first one at Blakeney, following this in 2010 with Heydon, in north Norfolk, 15 miles from Norwich.

GERALD Davidson admits that he is still dealing – but then, as he points out, “does anyone ever give up?”

A contingent of more than 30 Chelsea dealers is seeking legal advice in the face of ongoing works on the King’s Road which have led to a significant fall in 2016 profits.

The rising cost of building maintenance contributed to the final closure of Hereford Antique Centre which houses nearly 25 dealers.

Donny Mann of Love Fairs has a second racecourse fair under starter’s orders.

How much would 700 chickens, 2000 of the finest fish or 11,000 pints of beer cost you these days? A hoard of 1857 Roman coins discovered in the north of England would buy any of those options.

Fellows’ second Designer Collection sale fetched over £100,000. With a Hermès Birkin 35 taking the top spot, it seems the current trend for classic fashions and accessories at auction is here to stay.

Pablo Picasso is revered as a key pioneer of Cubism, the radical approach to representing reality that he spearheaded with Georges Braque in the early 1900s. As with so many art movements, its roots extend further back, however.

With summer holidays upon us and no Antiques Trade Gazette being published this week, we take our regular look here at some of the highest selling items and top selling lots on thesaleroom.com

Super-salesman and artist Marcus Harvey, one of the 100 artist exhibitors at the Vauxhall Art Car Boot Fair at Hastings on July 16, had been chatting to Amber Rudd, newly appointed home secretary in Theresa May’s government reshuffle.

The triumphal portrait of Elizabeth I has become public property with the help of a Heritage Lottery Fund grant and £1.5m pounds raised in public donations.

Flat tyres and a thick film of dust, dirt and grime. Last on the road in the 1960s. It doesn’t exactly scream ‘buy me’. Especially for a £19,000 hammer price. Not to mention the fact that it’s going to cost you many thousands more to restore.