2018

Reporter: “Well John, how was the trip over, did you all get bored on the flight, or did you have things to keep you entertained, that y’all were doing?” John Lennon: ‘Well, err, we all got stoned.”

New culture minister Jeremy Wright, appointed this week after a Cabinet reshuffle prompted by the resignation of David Davis and Boris Johnson, is being asked to prioritise the introduction of digital export licences for art works in time for Brexit.

A rediscovered landscape attributed to Lucian Freud, found under another painting, has sold at a top-estimate £30,000 at the Sworders saleroom.

The Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) has released details of the 40th Annual Conference on Book Trade History.

The dates of the Cotswolds Art & Antiques Dealers’ Association Fair has been moved from its usual April slot to take place in February next year.

The original drawing of the map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by EH Shepard has been sold for a hammer price of £350,000, setting an auction record for a book illustration.

The former Christie’s chairman and the last surviving member of Sir Winston Churchill's post-war government, Lord Carrington, has died aged 99.

The Elgar Foundation is calling for the return of a draft score of the Enigma Variations by Sir Edward Elgar shown on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

Prince Harry has bought a first edition Winnie the Pooh from antiquarian book dealer Peter Harrington for his nephew Louis.

The Winter Art and Antiques Fair at Olympia needs an additional dose of dealer commitment as the deadline to save the event approaches.

For the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, a call has gone out for artists to apply for a residency at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation in West Sussex, leading to a solo exhibition in the De La Warr Pavilion’s gallery next year.

A second art fair in the space of a few months has been launched at Saatchi Gallery.

It has been described as perhaps the most curious regiment in the British Army, but the well-known names associated with the Artists Rifles were certainly not obscure.

As London’s week of blockbuster auctions took place under the blazing summer sun (see our next issue) members of the art and antiques trade had plenty to say about trust, the redevelopment of Olympia and – of course – the ivory ban.

A group of eight rare pendant ornaments from an Austral Islands necklace has been consigned to Grand Auctions in Folkestone.

A recently discovered self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi, the celebrated Italian Baroque artist, has been acquired by the National Gallery in London for £3.6m.

Christie’s latest evening sale of Old Masters in London generated a premium inclusive total of £31.2m with records posted for painting by Gerard David (c.1460-1523) and a print by Rembrandt (1606-69).

A coin and antiquities dealer has been arrested as part of an international investigation into a £35m crime network dealing in looted artefacts.

Asian art dealer Alastair Gibson has launched a petition to lobby parliament to change an amendment contained in the ivory bill.

A collection of letters, drawings, cards and photos from American businessman, publisher and Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, are to be offered at auction later this month in Chicago.