News topics

LIPKA’S Antiques Gallery, the Portobello antiques arcades that closed earlier this year, has now become an outlet for the AllSaints Spitalfields fashion chain.

LONDON art dealers Agnew’s, who were founded in 1817, mark the new year with a new chief executive, new gallery and a new direction.

As buyers took the chance the chance to swipe a glitzy stocking-filler in time for Christmas, the latest Russian sales in London showed that there is still plenty of money to be made in this sector, despite the downturn.

THE Hôtel Drouot was rocked to its foundations on December 2 after a massive police swoop ended with 12 people being taken into custody on suspicion of organised theft.

IT wasn't just the London auction rooms that benefitted from the Russian influx last week. On November 29, Wilkinson's of Doncaster offered this 19th century Russian silver and niello work box.

AUSTRALIA has reversed its previous government’s decision and introduced its own version of the Artist’s Resale Right.

THE two museums hoping to provide a home for the Staffordshire hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold will be asking arts charities and other funding bodies to pay for it.

THE Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association (PBFA) and Oxfam have come to an agreement in their dispute over how the charity is affecting the secondhand book market.

GUERNSEY’S Martel Maides and Byrne’s of Saltney, Chester have become the latest UK regional auctioneers to benefit from the insatiable demand for Chinese mark and period works of art. Both achieved house records last week.

CHINA is to encourage the return of its cultural heritage by offering overseas collectors “reasonable compensation”.

WOODBRIDGE, Suffolk saleroom Neal Sons & Fletcher included a small collection of post-War silver by Robert Welch, Gerald Benney and Stuart Devlin in their November 18 sale.

THE artist may not have a famous name or any track record in the saleroom, but arguably the most intriguing lot at Rogers Jones' latest Welsh Sale in Colwyn Bay was a collection of 50 striking Art Deco watercolours by Gladys Williamson (1914-2007).

UK museums whose own rules prevent them from returning Nazi-looted art to its rightful owners can now do so thanks to a new Act of Parliament.

A REMARKABLE collection of 70 early toasters from one private collection will be offered by Brown & Co at the Brigg Auction Rooms, North Lincolnshire as part of their winter fine art and antiques sale on December 12.

ONLY three weeks after it was announced that Antiquarian Booksellers Association president Alan Shelley was standing down because of ill health, we are sorry to report that he has passed away.

EARLY 17th century embroidery is a fairly rare beast, but it does surface occasionally.

THE St Ives studio that housed Sir Terry Frost, Peter Blake and Francis Bacon has won a £900,000 restoration grant.

SOTHEBY’S staged a white-glove sale in London last week as 50 works from the collection of Lord and Lady Attenborough all found buyers.

ITALIAN auctioneers Finarte have announced that they will no longer make their auction results public because of complaints from both consignors and buyers.

HAS the top end of the art market bounced back? This was the opinion ventured by some commentators after the flagship sales of Impressionist and Modern art in New York last week.