Dealers

The dreaded experience of the inexperienced gallery-goer: having mustered the courage to ring the buzzer on the door, you’re greeted by a deathly silence as you nervously look at the works under the hawk-like gaze of a dealer. No prices and you’re too scared to ask. This is exactly the kind of image that the organisers of Master Paintings Week and Master Drawings London are trying to combat.

An alarming rise in violent robberies on antiques dealers in Portobello Road has spurred them into action to call for better police cover, CCTV cameras and even private security guards.

It’s closing time for another antiques market in the Portobello Road area where dealers increasingly fear for the future of their trade.

TRADERS in Sheffield have launched an initiative to promote the city’s antiques quarter that could provide a template for other parts of the country to follow.

IT was the five o’clock shadow that gave it away. When London dealer Philip Mould spotted this 18th century portrait in a general paintings sale at the New York auctioneers Thomas Cornell Galleries in November last year, he thought it to be of a rather masculine middle-aged lady.

Seven-day trading in the basement at the Admiral Vernon Arcade has been given the green light despite fears it might sound the death knell for antiques in Portobello.

WITH their move to new premises, Mallett have announced a profit for the first time in four years.

MALLETT have quit their New Bond Street showroom for Ely House in Dover Street, in the heart of Mayfair.

A DETAILED survey of the relationship between antiques dealers and their banks has highlighted a serious breakdown in communication and little inclination on the part of the financial institutions to understand the special nature of the antiques business.

THE Royal Mint stands accused of ripping off the public through sales of coins as collectables. Even the latest Olympic issue is affected, it is claimed. The problem has become so outrageous, says the UK's leading dealer in the secondary market in non-gold coins from the Royal Mint, that he has announced a boycott.

MALLETT have assigned the lease on their Bond Street rooms to fashion house Fendi and have confirmed that they are negotiating new premises in Mayfair.

TOP-END furniture dealers Mallett made a £1.3m loss last year, a 30 per cent improvement on 2009.

THE Arctic weather that struck the UK last week caused severe disruption during one of the busiest periods in the calendar for the art and antiques trade.

THE danger of taking commission on deals without the express knowledge of the vendor has been underlined by a High Court ruling. In it, a London dealer has been told that he was not entitled to keep a $1m commission he retained following the sale of a Leonardo da Vinci drawing in August 2007.

IN the week when dealer John Hobbs was due to meet his former restorer a London court, Dreweatts have announced they will be selling his stock at auction in December.

It could be less than a month until the date is named when antiquities dealer Malcolm Hay will be extradited to serve a four-year jail sentence in Greece – on the strength of no credible evidence.

DEALERS are being warned that they could be targeted by credit card fraud after a noticeable increase in cloned American Express cards.

PARIS furniture dealer Hervé Aaron was removed as President of France’s Syndicat National des Antiquaires (SNA) at its AGM on October 25 – to be replaced by the man he ousted two years ago, Christian Deydier.

FOR decades one of the world’s leading modern art dealerships, the Jan Krugier Gallery will close its New York headquarters at the end of this year and transfer all its operations to Geneva, Switzerland.

SHOWGROUND fair dealers are reminded to be vigilant after a visitor to the recent Newark fair had his pockets slashed.