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CREDIT card fraud affecting auction houses and dealers is on the increase all over the country, say the police.

THE first corkscrew model designed by Robert Jones and Son of Cheapside, Birmingham in 1840, distinctive for a narrow barrel and a single spike, can usually be bought for around £1000.

CHINESE hardstone carvings worth millions have been stolen from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

IT was a case of ‘last but not least’ at Bonhams’ latest prints sale in New Bond Street.

IS this the longest queue ever to view a single lot coming up at auction?

A UNIQUE Falklands War medal marking the ‘phenomenally brave’ work of a bomb disposal expert has sold for what is believed to be a record price at auction.

IT was the five o’clock shadow that gave it away. When London dealer Philip Mould spotted this 18th century portrait in a general paintings sale at the New York auctioneers Thomas Cornell Galleries in November last year, he thought it to be of a rather masculine middle-aged lady.

FOLLOWING last week’s front page story regarding allegations of non-payment and irregularities over credit card payments at Cameo Auctions of Midgham, Berkshire, many readers with similar complaints contacted ATG looking for advice.

JUBILEE Antiques & Art Auction will become the first Chinese auction house to conduct sales in the West when they hold an auction of Asian works of art at the Bloomsbury Hotel on May 12.

The subject of a recent BBC documentary regarding county court judgments, the Midgham firm of fine art auctioneers and valuers are also the subject of non-payment claims and other complaints.

SOTHEBY’S concluded their latest Hong Kong series of sales on April 4, raising a premium-inclusive total of over HK$2.46bn (£212.5m) for the eight sales containing over 2780 lots.

ENTERED for sale by a descendent of the family for whom it was made, this carved wood and painted plaster model of an East End butcher’s shop sold for £22,000 at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury.

LEADING US regional saleroom Skinner are to launch an online-only auction platform.

BY the early decades of the 19th century it was clear that the ancient and cosmopolitan game of chess would require pieces of standardised size and shape as it entered the era of international competition.

TWO Chinese works of art valued at £1.8m have been stolen from Durham University’s Oriental Museum in a night-time raid.

WHILE London auctions saw a 25% rise in value for 2011, sales outside the capital have also been growing.

THIS large, 18in (45cm) high, London-made brass lantern clock, c.1660, proved the highlight of the recent single-owner estate sale conducted by Durrants of Beccles.

LARGE new gallery spaces in Hong Kong look set to provide the battleground in the competition for private treaty sales between Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

CHRISTIE’S South Kensington has been forced to postpone their sale of the Raglan Collection at the 11th hour after a legal dispute over the estate resulted in a court injunction.

THE Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) have announced that they will hand back undistributed Resale Right royalties after six years.