News topics

THE latest sales of Contemporary art in New York produced some solid results, but buyers were selective and not all the projected highlights fulfilled vendors’ expectations.

THE Fifth Annual Art Investment Conference will take place on May 27 at the London Business School and this year’s theme is Art Investment in the New Information Age. It will focus on the impact of increasing transparency on the global art market and how to adapt.

IN a series of high-profile auctions in New York that saw an underperforming run of Impressionist and Modern art sales, the eye-catching price of the week by some distance came for a 19th century historical genre painting.

"The best piece of furniture sold in Shropshire in a decade," enthused Shrewsbury auctioneer Jeremy Lamond of Halls.

SOTHEBY'S will sell the earliest rules of club football on July 14. They are part of a lot which includes the historic archive of the world’s oldest football club, Sheffield FC.

THE day after bullion prices peaked, thieves broke into an antiques centre in Cardiff and escaped with a haul of antique silver valued at thousands of pounds.

Makers do not manipulate deals, show’s boss tells ATG. The makers of the BBC television show The Antiques Road Trip have written to ATG defending the format of the programme.

HUGE quantities of antique silver and gold were scrapped last week as precious metal prices hit record highs.

ANTIQUES fairs will be able to continue at Swinderby for some time, despite the site’s prospective development as a gravel pit.

SOTHEBY’S latest Asian series represented an all-time high for the firm in Hong Kong.

THE Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) has held its first ever contested election for the posts of president and vice president in its 105-year history.

THE events of recent weeks have echoes of the infamous Bunker Hunt era that saw scrap silver prices spike during an era of high oil prices and revolution in Iran.

Tennants sale in Leyburn on March 24-26 enjoyed a substantial contribution from George Tinworth (1843-1913) and his wonderful anthropomorphic mice.

BACK in the 1980s, on the back of the Lalique boom, there used to be fairly regular offerings of scent bottles at auction in London.

DEALERS at Portobello Road were celebrating a dramatic victory last week after the council rejected a planning application which campaigners said would have been “devastating” for the antiques market.

THE highest bullion prices for a generation are helping the cause of much general silver at auction, but the real strength of the market is for the better-quality smallwork where weight counts for nought.

THE owner of a tearoom in Horncastle, Lincolnshire claims he is a victim of bureaucracy after he was told he could face prosecution for selling antiques from the premises.

IN a private sale negotiated by Christie’s, the Victoria and Albert Museum has acquired this remarkable 16th century tankard made for the Ottoman court.

WITH the arts budget severely squeezed in the government spending review, the announcement that The Art Fund will be dramatically expanding their funding programme provided some welcome news for Britain’s museums and public galleries.

THE National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) are holding their annual forum for chattels auctioneers and valuers – or anyone with an interest in the industry – at The Belfry, West Midlands just off the M42 on May 9.