Organisations

VENDORS wishing to protect their interests when an auction house becomes insolvent should use firms where at least one of the partners or directors is a member of the RICS.

THE British Antique Dealers’ Association believe campaigners are wrong to call for only independent registered experts to be allowed to date ivory objects. The move would drive trade underground they say.

More than half of those of who responded to the latest LAPADA survey have reported a decrease in turnover in 2003. The annual survey sent out in December by the UK’s largest antiques dealer’s association, was this year completed by 158 members – 25 per cent of the association’s membership. Last year, it was 151 members, or 22 per cent, which indicates that the association has lost a net of 54 members – eight per cent – over the past year.

LAPADA have named their new chief executive as Sarah Harvey, a former auctioneer at both Phillips and Sotheby’s. She will take up her post on March 29.

Funded by the Friends of the British Museum, the Caryatid Fund and the National Art Collections Fund, the British Museum has acquired an extremely rare Roman fluorspar cup from the 1st century AD. The total cost of the antiquity, bought from a leading London dealer, was £150,000.

The Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers have announced a new subscription structure in the hope of broadening their membership to include smaller firms of valuers.

EBAY, the great survivors of the dot-com boom and bust, have again posted a record set of results to complete a remarkable year in which the company reaped revenues of over $2bn. There were 41 million people who have bid, bought or listed on eBay over the past 12 months.

FAR from mourning the demise of the January LAPADA fair, which ran for 13 years at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, the trade seem to have embraced its successor, The National Fine Art and Antiques Fair, which will be launched at this favoured venue from January 28 to February 1.

Measures would not restrict art trade: BRITAIN may soon enjoy one of the most enlightened schemes for keeping key works of art in the country, thanks to the Goodison Review, which has just been published.

The Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers have re-elected Surrey auctioneer Chris Ewbank as chairman and welcomed to new members to the management committee.

A National Art Collections Fund grant of £37,500 has helped Ely’s Stained Glass Museum acquire an important early 13th century French stained glass panel of the bust of a king.

WELSH period furniture dealer Ian Anderson of F.E. Anderson & Son has joined LAPADA’s board of directors. Mr Anderson’s business was started by his great-grandfather in 1842 and he still works from the original four-storey premises in the High Street of Welshpool, Powys. “We were one of the original members when LAPADA was set up,” said the new director, who joined the family firm upon leaving school in 1966.

Ebay are warning their users to be vigilant after users of PayPal fell victim to a hi-tech scam in November and December. Many received a replicating virus that, camouflaged as an email from the online payment provider, tried to trick the recipient into sending sensitive information.

NAVA, the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers, welcomed 70 members to their weekend conference and annual general meeting in Edinburgh, that started on November 20. Highlights included a paper presented by auctioneer Martin Spencer-Thomas entitled: A Revolutionary Concept with Potential or Complete Lunacy?

JOHN Newgas has announced his decision to step down as chief executive of LAPADA, the Association of Art and Antiques Dealers, at the end of December.

IN the week of their centenary conference to discuss the future of saving art for the nation, the National Art Collections Fund announced another success. They have awarded a grant of £108,000 to help the British Museum acquire the Guilford Puteal: Corinth’s Monument to Actium (c.25-10 BC).

SOUTHAMPTON Institute is looking forward to a brighter future after the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers confirmed approval of the BA (FAV) degree course and launched student membership.

LAPADA have set up an email alert system to warn members about fraudsters after an indepth investigation by the association led to a serial offender being caught and jailed. John Alderson of Seattle was convicted in the USA and has just been sentenced to 41 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He must also pay restitution of $146,000 to victims.

THIS week sees a two-day international conference at The Savoy in London to mark the centenary of the National Art Collections Fund. Saving Art for the Nation, A Valid Approach to 21st-Century Collecting? runs on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 11 and 12, and will focus on whether it matters if works of art that were once the pride of British private collections go overseas and how they should be rescued for the nation if we believe it is important to keep them here.

A thief who stole garden antiques worth over £34,000 in highly planned operations has been jailed for 15 months after being caught as a result of a Antiques Trade Gazette advertisement.