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As collectors parted with hundreds of thousands of pounds for works at Frieze, fair organiser Jasper Joffe was busy at another event giving art away free.

RUPERT Toovey is standing down as chairman of the RICS Art and Antiques faculty in order to train as a worker priest in the Church of England.

THERE must be something satisfying about a sale that performs as expected. Vendor, auctioneer and buyers all have their hopes and desires affirmed and most people come away happy.

Two January fairs run by Stella Show Management in New York are under threat from construction problems and the occupation of an armory building by the National Guard.

Investors in art and antiques will be among the winners of a major reform of capital gains tax proposed in the government’s pre-Budget report.

£10,000 reward put up as police reveal that painting could hold the key to unsolved mystery

THE French government are so concerned about their dwindling share of the global art market that they have come up with a four-point plan to rescue it. They include a measure that effectively calls for the scrapping of due diligence for auctioneers.

When first unveiled at the International Exhibition in London in 1862 (and subsequently shipped to Paris in 1867 and Vienna in 1873), the St James’s Clock, as it became known, was heralded as the second largest clock in the world after E.J. Dent’s Big Ben.

Tamlyns’ sale held in Bridgwater on October 2 included this unusual copper food mould in the form of a hedgehog, standing 7in (17cm) high.

Another imperial Chinese sleeper has awoken in West Sussex.

FOUR men, including two lawyers, arrested in a police raid in Glasgow to recover the Leonardo da Vinci stolen from Drumlanrig Castle, have now been charged in a Scottish court.

One of the highlights of the September 11-13 sale at Gorringes (17.5% buyer’s premium) was this marquetry panel by A.J. Rowley after a design by Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956).

A delegation of 17 members of the Syndicat National des Maison de Ventes Voluntaires (SyMEV, the main body representing French auctioneers) was in England last week for a three-day study tour investigating different aspects of the UK market.

Bonhams have announced a series of senior management changes for their European operations. They include the appointment of former deputy chairman Matthew Girling in the new role of Bonhams CEO Europe.

SPINK have set a new record for an English silver coin with the £180,000 they took for a 1663 Charles II silver Crown on September 27.

CHARTERHOUSE auctioneers in Sherborne, have broken the auction record for a Military Medal group only two months after the previous one was set.

Ten telephone bidders drew battle lines with several bidders in the room for this 4ft 8in x 3ft (1.42m x 92cm) giltwood pier glass sold by Saltney, Chester auctioneers Byrne’s on September 29.

What price one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy? On December 10, Sotheby’s New York will offer for sale one of just 17 surviving 13th century copies of Magna Carta.

Antiquorum, the world’s leading watch auctioneers, insist it will be “business as usual” following the shock departure this August of the Geneva firm’s charismatic founder, Osvaldo Patrizzi, after a row with Japanese owners Artist House Holdings, who acquired Antiquorum for a reported $30m in 2006.

BONHAMS will auction off the contents of the Savoy Hotel on the premises in London in a three-day sale just days after it closes for a £100 million refurbishment.