Front Page and News

A group of drawings and a sketchbook compiled by an artist assigned to Napoleon’s campaigns in Prussia and Poland in 1806-07 has been secured by the Louvre at a Toulouse auction.

Banksy’s derisive portrayal of The House of Commons reduced to an assembly of primates achieved a record £8.5m (plus premium) in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auction on October 3.

A missing Pugin parliamentary letter box has been returned to the Palace of Westminster more than 100 years after it disappeared.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) has committed to greater transparency and more consultation with its 300-plus members before key decisions affecting the trade body’s future are made.

Chief marketing officer Marc Sands outlines his plans for online growth at the auction house.

An oil on panel of The Tower of Babel, 1604, by Abel Grimmer (1570-1618/19), offered at £1.35m by Johnny Van Haeften was one of the stand-out sales during last week’s host of London art and antique trade events.

Original paintings by Abstract artist Nicolas de Stael (1914-55) rarely appear at auction outside the main salerooms in London, Paris and New York.

The stylish Art Deco pottery figures for which Ars Lenci became celebrated were first shown at the Turin international exhibition in 1928.

In a move to increase its digital presence and reach new bidders, Bonhams has agreed a long- term partnership with Auction Technology Group, owner of online auction marketplace thesaleroom.com.

The first printed copy of Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica was published in Strasbourg as early as c.1475 with subsequent versions printed in Vienna (1513), Strasbourg again (1500), Haguenau (1506), Paris (1544) and Antwerp (1550).

Sold at Bonhams last week, the emerald in this Art Deco brooch is a clue to the remarkable life of its one-time owner Lady Hood.

A Régence period giltwood table attracted interest from across the trade, taking £52,000 (estimate £5000- 8000) at Lots Road Auctions (22% buyer’s premium).

London and Petworth dealer Timothy Langston Fine Art & Antiques has sold a portrait of the Regency period antiquarian Sir William Gell (1777-1836) to the British Museum.

The first tranche of a private collection of predominantly Far Eastern maps and charts sold for more than £500,000 at Reeman Dansie and included a house record.

Despite surface dirt and other condition issues, a painting of Naples drew a dramatic bidding competition at a recent auction in Rome.

A work spotted by a French auctioneer in a kitchen hanging above a hotplate has been ascribed to the Italian artist Cimabue (c.1240- 1302). Valued at €4m-6m, it will be the first work attributed to the Florentine early Renaissance master to be offered at auction.

Newbury’s Special Auction Services is to expand into a double-height saleroom in the new year.

Two men from south London have been sentenced for selling antique ivory fans on eBay to buyers in China and the US.

The British Hallmarking Council has issued new guidance for jewellery dealers on articles hallmarked outside the UK by the Birmingham Assay Office, writes Laura Chesters.