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Two large 18th century gold medals depicting events from the reign of Catherine the Great sold for spectacular sums at Duke’s latest auction in Dorchester.

COMMENT: One is a marketing expert from outside the industry with a background in the media, luxury and entertainment sectors, the other is a career auction house professional with decades of service at the same company under his belt.

A remarkable hoard of coins shedding light on the power struggles between Vikings and Anglo-Saxons has come onto the open market in a highly unusual sale.

Drama came at a recent sale at Taylor’s Auction Rooms in Montrose when a lot of two pieces of Chinese blue and white porcelain sold for £200,000.

This portrait by Glyn Warren Philpot (1884-1937) was the star performer of pictures formerly in Sir Noël Coward’s collection sold at Christie’s South Kensington.

Discovered in a pile of objects waiting to be tipped at a routine house clearance, a pair of large ceramic plaques will be offered at Gary Don in Leeds this week.

The April staging of the ‘Philadelphia Antiques Show’, one of America’s premier antiques events, has been cancelled. The fair, faced with falling dealer and visitor numbers in recent years, hopes to return in 2016 at a new venue with a broader exhibitor base.

Bath auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate (20% buyer’s premium) set a new house record on March 12 with the sale of a guitar by the celebrated French luthier Jean-Baptiste Voboam (1658-after 1731) for £120,000.

Stable year-on-year values across art and antique exports as a whole mask major changes in influence among the UK’s trading partners in 2014.

A picture stolen from a Hertfordshire house three years ago and recently recovered sold at an Essex auction last week for £80,000.

Sotheby’s have appointed Tad Smith, aged 49, as president and chief executive officer, effective March 31, 2015.

“Most of us will never experience space, which explains why space-flown items are in such high demand. Their travels imbue them with an almost mystical aura.”

COMMENT: The TEFAF Report shows that the art market has fully recovered since the 2008 financial crash, but still faces a number of challenges, such as late or non-payment.

Post-War and Contemporary art accounts for almost half of total spend at auction

Only one other major George Frederick Handel (1685-1759) manuscript has come up for auction in the last 40 years, so Stargardt in Berlin can be assured of an international audience for the extensive autograph work they will offer on March 24-25.

A Chelsea porcelain beaker with blue and white botanical decoration caused a sensation at Peter Wilson latest sale in Nantwich. Estimated at £100-200, it sold at £37,000.

The April edition of the ‘Kunst & Antiquitäten’ fair will not go ahead this year.

Sotheby’s year-end results for 2014 signal a refocus of activity to encompass much more of the middle market than in recent years.

Potteries Auctions in Staffordshire are offering this large William Moorcroft exhibition vase at their second auction in their new premises in Silverdale on April 25.

More information has emerged about the colourful recent history of the £5m Wolsey Angels.