News topics

THE National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) will hold its annual Forum for chattels auctioneers and valuers at The Belfry golf and leisure resort in the West Midlands on April 26.

ONE of the North East’s best-known auctioneers faces a substantial fine and a possible prison sentence after being charged over the sale of an Edwardian collection of birds’ eggs.

Five months after ATG revealed the reattribution of La Bella Principessa to Leonardo da Vinci, the man who spotted it is ready to unveil another major find.

Bearnes, Hampton & Littlewood (BHL) are not seeking to recover a cache of gold and jewellery accidentally sold as part of a lot in their 2006 sale of Agatha Christie effects.

SOTHEBY’S staged the most lucrative art sale ever in the Netherlands on March 8 when they offered a 161-lot selection of contemporary art from the corporate collection of British American Tobacco.

DRAMATICALLY overshooting a £2000-3000 estimate, this small unsigned Mannerist oil on slate depicting Venus and Cupid attracted the attention of at least ten bidders at Rosebery's of West Norwood, South London on March 9.

BEARNES Hampton & Littlewood have held their first sale at the newly renovated Dowell Street, Honiton saleroom which they took over from Bonhams' in January.

BBC Two are seeking contestants for Antiques Master, a new primetime antiques show which aims to find the most knowledgeable amateur antiques expert in the UK.

IMPORTS and exports of art and antiques for the UK shrank by around a quarter in 2009. In what proved to be one of the most difficult trading years since the early 1990s, exports across the globe fell by 24.3% to just over £2bn, while imports dropped by 26.2% to £1.86bn.

OF all the many subjects painted by Harry Davis during his long tenure at the Royal Worcester factory, among the rarest and most desirable are polar bears in an Arctic landscape.

THE 1953 FA Cup Final will forever be known as the Matthews Final.It was while playing for Blackpool against Bolton Wanderers that the legendary winger Sir Stanley Matthews (1915-2000) gave his career-defining performance and won the only major honour of a long career.

RUNNING a tighter ship and targeting commissions to bring a better yield have helped Sotheby’s achieve the second biggest quarterly profits in the company’s history.

Culture minister Margaret Hodge has placed a temporary export ban on Raphael's Head of a Muse after ruling that an attempt should be made to keep the £26m drawing in the UK.

A FORTHCOMING BBC series aims to highlight the attractions of scouring auction rooms and antique shops.

NEW rules this summer mean that every work of art transported to and from the United States by a commercial passenger airliner must be screened individually by US airport security.

TAKE a beautiful sitter, a leading portraitist, add a touch of glamour and offer with an appetising estimate. Such is the recipe for a riotous bidding feast.

THE UK has almost drawn level with the United States as the world’s premier art market by value, according to the latest report commissioned by The European Fine Art Foundation.

AS court proceedings draw closer, Christie’s have upped their long-running damages claim against Artprice from 2m euros to a hefty 63m euros. The auction house originally filed the suit against the French art database in 2008, saying that the reproduction of e-catalogues on their website constitutes copyright and trademark infringement.

ON June 24, Gloucestershire auctioneers Chorley's will offer for sale this enormous 47 x 47ft (14.3 x 14.3m) reconstruction of the Orpheus pavement, a Roman mosaic.

MORE transparency and regulation at New York auctions is promised if a bill recently introduced in the state legislature is passed.