Museums and Institutions

HERITAGE grants have helped the British Museum acquire the 15th century illuminated manuscript known as the Wardington Hours.

The Victoria and Albert Museum have secured the funds to acquire this spectacular early 18th century French silver ewer and basin commissioned by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough.

After a year-long fund-raising effort, The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford has just secured the future of its most impressive Chelsea porcelain exhibit.

The Museum in Docklands have acquired a rare and significant archive of 18th century papers highlighting London’s role in the transatlantic slave trade.

The Louvre has more money to spend on buying art than the National Gallery, both Tates, the V&A and the British Museum put together.

A new exhibition to mark the 400th anniversary of the first permanent settlement in America opens at the Museum in Docklands this month.

More than 400 guests gathered to celebrate the Asian Art in London awards at the Burlington Gardens rooms of the Royal Academy on Wednesday night last week.

The Frederick Parker Collection of Chairs, whose long-term future once looked uncertain, has now found a secure home as a study collection at London Metropolitan University.

LAPADA have confirmed that their Royal Academy fair will go ahead from May 10 to 13 next year.

SCOTLAND Yard’s Art and Antiques Unit are staging an exhibition at the V&A to raise awareness among museums, galleries and art dealers of the problem of fakes in London.

EBay (UK) have given permission for members of the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme to monitor the trade in antiquities on the website.

MICK Jagger and Keith Richards may be doing well for 60-somethings, but they’ve got nothing on this old rocker. Dated to 1610, it is thought to be the oldest known rocking horse in the UK and was quite likely made for Charles I.

THE Whitewebbs Museum of Transport is holding its annual antique and collectors’ fair at the museum in Whitewebbs Road, Enfield on Sunday October 22.

LAST week's fire at the Royal Academy building at 6 Burlington Gardens is unlikely to affect the fairs scheduled to be held at the premises next year.

A NEW code of conduct has been agreed to offer standard guidelines for locating and unearthing treasure trove.

LESS than two months remains to find the final £116,057 towards the £1.4m price of a unique portrait of the 17th century poet John Donne.

A THIEF who used a key to get into a display cabinet and avoided being filmed on CCTV has made off with two unusual artefacts from a museum in Surrey.

The UK’s leading art charity has commissioned its first-ever work by a contemporary artist as part of a campaign to boost funding for the arts.

A magnificent Charles II silver fluted fruit sideboard dish saved from export in 2005 is now on display at the Royal College of Physicians. It will be displayed alongside their existing collection of memorabilia relating to Sir Francis Prujean, the President of the Royal College of Physicians (1650-1654) whose life-saving cures were recorded in Pepys’ diaries.

This medieval bronze jug was the talking point of Sotheby’s sale of the contents of Easton Neston last year when it was bought by London dealer Daniel Katz for a premium-inclusive £568,000 against expectations of £60,00-80,000. The rare jug is cast with a slew of insignia including the Royal arms as used between 1340 and 1405, a maker’s mark and the inscription To My Lord Wenlok.