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Around 260 people attended a champagne reception on Thursday, May 8 to mark the official opening of Sworders new saleroom in the presence of HRH Princess Michael of Kent.

There was high drama at Christie's latest decorative arts sale in London, when half the £3.1m total came from this Glasgow school panel by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, which sold to an American collector for £1.5m (plus premium).

Auctioneer unhappy about need to opt out at short notice

All eyes were on this 3ft 3in (99cm) high Roman marble double bust of Bacchus and his lover Ariadne at Bonhams Antiquities sale on May 1.

Ceramics specialist Ben Williams, who exposed studio pottery forger Jeremy Broadway, has drawn up a guide of how to spot fakes that have still not been traced.

READERS who watched the recent BBC drama Miss Austen Regrets will recall the scene in which a startled, bemused but not overly enthusiastic Jane is told by the Prince Regent’s librarian that his royal master is a great admirer and that she should feel quite at liberty to dedicate any new novel to the Prince.

The art and antiques business received some welcome positive publicity last week as a raft of national newspapers picked up on the headline findings of the first RICS Art & Antiques Market Survey.

The Louvre have secured the return of a French Crown Jewel after 121 years, through a private sale with Christie’s New York.

Cheshire auctioneers Robert Stones and Nick Allsopp of Peter Wilson, in Nantwich, have taken part in an experiment at King’s College, London, test-driving the so-called ‘intelligent gavel’.

The Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston, Lancashire will unveil a new Ceramics and Glass Gallery on May 14.

The World Jewellery Confederation have drawn up a voluntary code as a first step in trying to establish an international standard for precious metal jewellery, flatware and hollowware.

Two strong results for very different pieces were produced in Christie’s double bill of English furniture on April 24.

SOMEWHERE on a shelf in a pub in the Midlands there may be five rare books that could throw a whole new light on the Brontë family.

In a move that will impact hundreds of auctioneers worldwide, eBay are to discontinue their Live Auctions business by the end of this year.

A BATTERED old Bible in a strongbox with a woodcut pasted on the inside of the lid was sold with a boxed rosary for £6200 by auctioneer Paul Beighton of Thurcroft, near Rotherham on March 9. Behind it there was quite a story.

CONCERN over credit rules in New York has led a lawyer to draw up guidelines to protect the rights of anyone consigning art to dealers for sale there.

Christie’s are confidently expecting to set a new auction record for British furniture in London on June 18 when they offer a small but exclusive auction of just a dozen lots under the title 12: Exceptional furniture.

Nearly two years after its rushed introduction in the Republic of Ireland, the Artist’s Resale Right is still causing confusion among auctioneers, dealers, artists and aministrators.

A world record price for a comic-strip illustration was paid at a specalist sale at Artcurial in Paris on March 29: Georges Remi Hergé’s 1932 ink-and-gouache design for the cover of Tintin en Amérique.

THE French government’s change of heart over the Artist’s Resale Right is being hailed a sea change by fellow ‘anti’ campaigners.