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An exceptional find – a Roman white marble sarcophagus found in a Dorset garden – turned out to be something more of a rediscovery for Duke’s of Dorchester.

The appearance of a Modernist carpet at a sale in Germany next month writes a further chapter in the tale of two rugs, signed ‘Francis Bacon’, that have been withdrawn from sale in the UK twice in three years.

Credit card fraud affecting auction houses has reared its ugly head again and the details will sound depressingly familiar to firms already affected.

The franchise agreement under which Bloomsbury Auctions Italia has operated in Rome since September 2011 has ceased.

Recently rescued from Kent & Sussex Hospital in Tunbridge Wells, a selection of 13 Carter tiles attributed to Phyllis Butler are to be offered at Bonhams Knightsbridge on October 16.

A collection of 27 intaglios from the collection of Prince Stanislas Poniatowski (1754-1833), nephew of the last King of Poland, came to auction in London last month with a intriguing back-story.

The latest catalogue for Kensington ceramics dealer Simon Spero’s next exhibition has just landed on ATG’s Editorial desk.

This Russian military medal demolished an estimate of £10,000-15,000 at a recent sale held at Bonhams Knightsbridge.

Joy Barnes (b.1912), a life-long artist and local Somerset resident who turns 100 next month, was present in the saleroom to watch her collection of Modern British art and studio ceramics sold by Greenslade Taylor Hunt in Taunton.

Pictured here are delegates on the steps of the Ashmolean Museum during the Oxford Conference, a two-day event for auctioneers organised by Rupert Toovey of Toovey’s and Jeremy Lamond of Halls.

Three men have been jailed for a total of 18 years for their involvement in the theft of Chinese artefacts from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

The 14th century Wenlok Jug has been returned to a Luton museum after it was stolen in May.

This silver-gilt centrepiece is believed to be a prototype for a set of four soup tureens in the Royal Collection designed by John Flaxman (1756-1826) and made by John Bridge (1755-1834) for George IV.

The technological breakthrough of a clock which could keep accurate time to within one second every month was an unheard-of feat in 1727.

Following the late summer sales in Edinburgh, Bonhams have announced that they are to sell the contents of Hensol, an historic Category A-listed mansion at Mossdale, Castle Douglas.

Fishermen are reported to have discovered another ancient shipwreck, complete with cargo, in the South China Sea near Vung Tau off the South East coast of Vietnam.

Prints by Eric Ravilious (1903-42) don’t crop up too often, so when Sworders’ offered a collection of five lithographs from his ‘Submarines’ series at latest sale in Stansted Mountfitchet, there was understandably a good level of interest.

Previously only known from a 1910 print and unrecorded for half a century, this 20in x 2ft 6in (50 x 75cm) oil by John William Godward (1861-1922) will be offered by Lawrences in Crewkerne on October 12.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction is to go on display to the public for six months at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Among the submissions considered for the Radio 4’s popular series ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ were two modest pieces of silver and enamel Art Nouveau-style jewellery by Charles Horner (1837-96) of Halifax – the local jeweller turned international manufacturer who through mass-production methods, innovative designs and marketing genius took high fashion to the masses.