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Auction houses and antiques malls in the United States are reporting a surge in overseas buying on the internet thanks to the weak dollar.

BEARNE’S have been forced to withdraw a large number of lots relating to Lord Byron from their November 7 sale.

PREVIOUSLY unpublished letters from the poet John Betjeman are to form part of the setting for a travelling display of early 20th century jewellery designer Helen Holmes at Bonhams.

A private San Francisco bank has emerged as one of the largest creditors of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries.

The descendants of James Thursby Pelham, a renowned early 20th century collector who was advised by R. W. Symonds, are in the process of selling some fine English furniture.

Two different pistols with very different stories sold at provincial auctions in the UK in October.

Collectors of Clarice Cliff have voiced their opposition to increased auctioneers’ charges with some refusing to attend Christie’s latest sale of the popular Art Deco pottery.

Sotheby’s have posted their highest price in Paris since the French auction market was opened to foreign firms in 2001.

FRENCH auctioneers are to hold their next open weekend of events on November 17-18.

New York Old Master dealers Salander-O’Reilly are expected to file for bankruptcy after a state judge ordered their gallery to be closed indefinitely.

Art dealer Andrew Sim has sold a watercolour by Richard Dadd (1817-1886) to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. It is the first work by the enigmatic Victorian artist to enter the museum’s vast art collection.

ESTIMATED at just £1000-1500, a work catalogued as by a follower of Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) has sold for £2.2m at the Gloucestershire saleroom of Moore, Allen & Innocent (15% buyer’s premium).

THE Good Web Guide has just published its review of the Antiques Trade Gazette websites, including the-saleroom.com, and given them a five-star rating.

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.