Front Page and News

A new auction house is to open in London hoping to find a gap in the market for cameras, scientific and medical instruments.

The latest Old Master sales in London put in a solid performance with the overall total from last week’s auction series running at £115m (including premium) with one day sale still to take place at the time of going to press.

The Metropolitan Police’s Art and Antiques Unit is to temporarily close due to “unprecedented” demand within the force.

A claim by former auctioneer turned art-advisor Simon de Pury that he is owed $10m for facilitating the sale of a work by Paul Gauguin was heard before the High Court in London last week.

A moment of good old-fashioned saleroom drama emerged at Christie’s antiquities sale on July 5 when an Etruscan bronze mirror, estimated at £10,000-15,000, sold at £390,000 (plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium). The buyer was a European institution.

Rocketing business rates and the impact of building works for Crossrail are to force the closure of Grays Mews.

TEFAF is to trial its own online selling platform at the fair organisation’s autumn New York event, with a view to building a permanent e-commerce presence.

The number of art dealers specialising in modern and contemporary art in central London is growing, and outstripping dealers in period work.

For more than 10 years after its donation, this Suffragette banner sat stowed away in a cupboard at a little charity shop in Leeds. On June 20 it sold at local saleroom Gary Don for £13,600 (plus 21% buyer’ premium).

BADA president and former MP for Kensington, Victoria Borwick, addressed SOFAA's biannual gathering of auctioneers on June 30. She tackled auctioneer-dealer relations, the ivory question, parliament's understanding of the antiques trade and the cultural property bill.

A set of four silver-gilt candlesticks priced at £350,000 by Koopman Rare Art, were among the top sales on the opening day of Masterpiece London last week.

The global trade body for antiquities dealers has insisted that Europe does not provide a ready market for looted artefacts from conflict zones.

An Oxford antiques centre facing closure has been rescued after a white knight was made aware of its plight via ATG and Twitter.

A massive Burmantofts faience charger sold for £13,000 (plus 22% buyer’s premium) at Woolley & Wallis of Salisbury on June 22 – the highlight of a remarkable collection of more than 700 pieces by the Leeds factory.

A miners‘ lamp lit up bidding at a Cotswold saleroom to set a record for a George Stephenson model.

The new owner of Dreweatts in Newbury is to bring back a monthly general sale.

London art and antiques galleries have been alerted to a scam that has seen at least four dealers preyed on by tricksters.

An enticingly estimated drawing by the 17th century English court portraitist Sir Peter Lely offered for sale in a French provincial auction drew a flurry of attention from English trade and private bidders last week. It was propelled to over 20-times its estimate.

As part of a five-year plan to grow its interest in the coin collecting market, The Royal Mint has taken a share in Mayfair numismatic dealership Sovereign Rarities.

A pair of 12in (30cm) high Sèvres hard paste vases painted with elaborate chinoiserie sea battles by Jean-Jacques Dieu, proved the highlight of Bonhams’ June 14 sale of European ceramics.