Dealers

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.

THREE masked raiders who stole £30,000 of antiques from a Petworth gallery before leading police on a chase across the home counties, have been jailed.

THE eighth annual Dealers versus Auctioneers football match ended in a resounding victory for the dealers, thanks in no small part to a hat-trick from the man who founded the event, Edenbridge dealer Lennox Cato.

DEALERS Down Under have successfully fought off the recommendations of a government report that threatened to disrupt the status quo in the Australian art market.

DISGRACED New York art dealer Lawrence Salander has been jailed for a minimum of six years after pleading guilty to orchestrating one of the world’s biggest ever art frauds.

THIS year’s National Antiques Week (November 15-21) will see offers of 20 per cent discounts from dealers all over the country.

WHEN the Commission for Retail Preservation was set up by Kensington and Chelsea Council in 2006, the borough’s mayor at the time, Tim Ahern, was quoted in an official release, as follows:

THE antiques trade in Portobello Road has suffered another blow, with the demise of The Good Fairy market now confirmed. Added to what has gone before, it calls into question Kensington and Chelsea Council’s entire vision for the borough as set out in its Core Strategy, currently being reviewed by the Planning Inspectorate, which talks time and again about how Portobello should be protected as a Special District Centre.

TRADERS and campaigners at Portobello Road are urging fellow dealers and members of the public to attend the planning meeting regarding the redevelopment of The Good Fairy Market taking place at Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall on Tuesday, July 6.

DEALERS at another antiques arcade in Portobello Road are having to vacate the centre after being given notice to quit.

CERAMICS dealer Jonathan Horne, former Chairman of the BADA and Past Master of the Guild of Arts Scholars, Dealers and Collectors, was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to English ceramics.

GREAT Grooms owner James Podger has issued an alert to the Hungerford antiques trade after his premises were ‘cased’ by potential burglars.

AFTER being closed since early March, The Good Fairy Market in Portobello Road reopened on May 8, to the surprise of some dealers at the Saturday market.

LAST week's letter from the deputy leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, Councillor Daniel Moylan, (click here to read letter) replying to my commentary on the Portobello planning dispute in ATG No 1937, took me to task for swallowing 'uncritically the claims being made about the council' with regards to Portobello Road, 'almost as if he is unaware that there are elections on and that Portobello lies at the heart of a ward being bitterly contested by Labour and the Lib Dems'.