Dealers

MARK Law and his fellow directors of Amor Holdings have completed their acquisition of Partridge of Bond Street about 18 months ahead of schedule.

ONE of London’s oldest and most traditional art dealerships, Agnew’s, has sold its historic galleries in Bond Street and will downsize its Old Master paintings department to concentrate on contemporary art.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association have suspended the membership of John Hobbs pending an inquiry into the allegations made against the Pimlico Road dealer in a national newspaper.

Kensington Church Street dealer Paul Reeves did a double-take at Sotheby’s earlier this month. As well as curating their March 20 mixed-owner decorative arts sale titled The Best of British, he also mounted a week-long selling exhibition of his own stock under the same title in their Bond Street Galleries.

The Art Loss Register (ALR) have defended their decision to mislead Kent dealer Michael Marks in the Souza paintings case after members of the trade expressed strong concern at the agency’s actions.

KENSINGTON and Chelsea council have told the landlords of Antiquarius to halt the building work that has split the King’s Road antiques centre in two. This comes after the building received a Grade II listing last week.

A DEALER has had to hand over £300,000 worth of paintings after a judge ruled that his records were not sufficient to show he had acquired them in good faith. He is also facing what is anticipated to be a six-figure bill for costs.

Anthony d’Offay’s decision to sell his art collection to the nation for a fraction of its value has sparked a new programme of acquiring and exhibiting works by contemporary artists for the nation.

ARTINSURE have secured an arrangement to act as specialist insurance product provider to the South African Antique Dealers’ Association.

Widespread concern over warrants that can ignore human rights

DEALERS facing eviction from The Mall in Camden Passage are taking legal advice after the landlords submitted an application to the council to alter the interior of the building.

A dealer who agreed a price for a table and then resold it to another party at a higher sum has been told by a judge to pay compensation to his original buyer.

Mall dealers ‘have nowhere to go’ if forced to leave

Art dealer Andrew Sim has sold a watercolour by Richard Dadd (1817-1886) to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It is the first work by the enigmatic Victorian artist to enter the museum’s vast art collection.

Not all the major single-owner collections are sold at auction. Last week Partridge Fine Art announced exclusively to ATG that they have secured the $40m (£20m) collection of Texas media and communications entrepreneur Scott Ginsburg for sale in their New Bond Street galleries.

OCTOBER will see Daniella Luxembourg, a leading art market figure, launch a major selling exhibition of early 20th century German art at Agnew’s.

Top British art dealer Simon Dickinson was arrested by Customs authorities on September 14 in connection with the £17m sale of nine Dutch Old Master paintings to the Liechtenstein Museum.

Partridge Fine Art lost £250,000 worth of jewellery to thieves at the Summer Olympia Fair. The thieves struck at the dealers’ stand on Sunday afternoon, when four items were taken. The police were informed immediately and Partridge spokesman Oscar Humphries told ATG that they were hopeful of recovering the gems.

Renowned Tudor historian and TV personality Dr David Starkey has discovered what is almost certainly the first and only known surviving portrait of Lady Jane Grey to be painted in her lifetime.

AT the end of March, the Bath and Bradford on Avon Antique Dealers’ Association will cease operations. Members will join in the launch of the new West of England Antique Dealers’ Association.