Organisations

CHARLES Hampshire of Peter Francis auctioneers in Carmarthen has won the NAVA National Auctioneer of the Year Award.

THE government are to refuse nearly all future applications for the export of old rhinoceros horn sold in the UK.

ATG readers spend £1.1bn a year on art and antiques, £800m of it at auction.

ANTIQUES Trade Gazette has won a Green Apple media award for its promotion of the Antiques Are Green campaign.

WINNER of the Country Life-LAPADA Object of the Year, announced last week at the London International Fine Art Fair at Olympia, was the so-called Hausburg cabinet belonging to Kensington Church Street dealers Butchoff Antiques.

LAPADA chairman, the Earl Howe, 59, pictured here, has been appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health in the Coalition Government, so under parliamentary rules has resigned his post with the antiques trade’s largest trade association.

ATG’s parent company, ATG Media, has agreed to provide the technology for the first live internet bidding site in Germany.

BUSINESS is holding up well for members of the British Antique Dealers’ Association despite the recession. With a projected combined turnover of about £752m, the impact of the downturn has not been as heavy as feared.

EBAY users in the US are questioning the merits of the feedback system after a buyer from Florida who left negative comments for a seller has been hit by a $15,000 lawsuit for defamation.

LAPADA chief executive Sarah Percy-Davies has made significant inroads into the Russian domestic market on behalf of British dealers as part of an official British trade delegation.

TIFFANY have lost on most counts in their appeal against a ruling in a US federal district court backing eBay over the sale of the firm’s jewellery.

EBAY buyers have taken matters into their own hands after the online giant failed to act against sales of fakes, despite being alerted to the problem on numerous occasions.

THE Staffordshire Hoard has been saved for the nation – and a further £1.7m appeal has been launched to pay for its conservation, study and display.

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.

EBAY’s legal fortunes continue to seesaw, with a Paris court ordering them to pay 230,000 euros to Louis Vuitton Malletier in costs and damages.

LAPADA are hoping to tap directly into the luxury goods market during a special trade mission to Moscow next month.

IT should be a brighter year ahead for trade according to the 2009 LAPADA Membership Survey.

A SURVEY of members by the British Antique Dealers Association has found that late payments as a result of the recession are causing a significant number of them cash-flow problems.

SPECIALIST dealers believe fake medals from the XXIXth Olympiad in Beijing are appearing for sale on eBay.

JANUARY sees the tightening of rules for RICS valuers in their assessment of personal property. Set out as part of the terms of the Red Book – the guide to Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors standards in valuing – the new compliance regulations apply to written valuations and will be mandatory for RICS members.