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Setting a record for the artist and making one the highest prices ever seen for a British picture, John Constable's ‘The Lock’ took £20m at Christie’s evening sale on July 3.

Only the day after a specialist sale at Bonhams, the June 29 auction at Strides of Chichester included two 3 x 2in (7 x 5.5cm) watercolour-on-vellum portraits by greats of the Commonwealth/Carolean age that trumped anything seen on Bond Street.

The Madoura Collection lived up to its billing as the single most important sale dedicated to Picasso ceramics ever held when it went under the hammer at Christie’s South Kensington.

Baroness Wilcox, the minister responsible for the Artist’s Resale Right, has told postcard campaigner Niall Fairhead that the Government won’t change the qualifying threshold for the levy.

Highly lucrative totals, a record sale and a selection of unprecedented prices seen for individual artists – the Contemporary art market seemed to carry on regardless in London last week.

What has been a rich summer season of American book and manuscript sales culminated when Christie’s New York saw a record for any American book or historical document.

Proposals to extend copyright on some designs from 25 to 70 years could set off a whole new era of legal disputes.

Pictures, books and ephemera from the Great Tew estate in Oxfordshire will be offered for sale at Holloway’s in Banbury on July 10.

Christie’s are broadening their range of activity by launching their first online-only sale, Signature Cellars, an auction of fine and rare wines that will be open for bidding from August 6 to 20.

Below is the full text of the statement made by Baroness Wilcox, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, on June 14, 2012.

Bonhams have integrated Lalique back into their broader mix of 20th century design auctions.

Lalique glass is one of those areas that has an international appeal with the best pieces selling strongly wherever they crop up.

The attractions of variations from run-of-the-mill ceramics extends to all factories, and the recent sale of a Royal Doulton 'Nelson' jug showed how the presence of a rare backstamp mark can increase the value of an item 100 times over.

A highlight at Fieldings Auctioneers’ July 7 sale in Stourbridge is a box containing personal effects reputed to have belonged to Captain William Kidd, the well-known Scottish sailor who was convicted of piracy and hanged in London on May 23, 1701.

Richard Winterton Auctioneers of Lichfield, Staffordshire will be offering for sale on July 5 a corporate collection of original artwork to include works by Vida Gabor, Jean Chaleye, Sue Ryder and Byron Howard among others.

A collection of Cornish Troika pottery will go under the hammer at Lawrences of Crewkerne, Somerset at their three-day, mixed-discipline sale on July 3, 5 and 6.

Among the star attractions at Bloomsbury Auction’s ‘Urban Contemporary’ sale, a 120-lot auction held on July 3 in Mayfair, London is ‘Moona Lisa’, a unique rendition in gold by Bristol-based artist Nick Walker.

This original poster for the 1948 Olympic Games by Walter Herz (b.1909) will be offered at Onslows’ internet auction of vintage posters on June 29.

Antique firearm collectors and dealers are at risk of prosecution because of gun ownership laws. The warning comes from firearms law expert Laura Saunsbury, of Lewis Nedas & Co solicitors in Camden, London. The firm have been involved in recent cases where possession of antique weapons has been the issue.

ATG Editor Ivan Macquisten is pictured here chairing a debate at the Summer Olympia fair on how the West should adapt to the demands of the Asian market.