Front Page and News

Although the mid-week sales at US auction house Stair Galleries typically focus on affordable property, there are some exceptions.

Exhibitors taking part in London Art Week attracted visits from major museums including The Getty, British Museum, Museum of London, Museum of the Home, National Portrait Gallery and major US museums from San Francisco to Houston and Chicago to Baltimore.

A new auction record for netsuke – over three times the previous high – has been set in France.

The flagship London summer sales were the first to take place since the major auction houses all raised their buyer’s premiums in the first half of 2023.

Underwear soars above estimate at a Richard Winterton auction

Another tranche of items from the Dudley Ollis collection of playing cards was offered at a recent Dominic Winter auction.

A relief sculpture by Antoine Coysevox (1640-1720) which has been identified as depicting Louis, Grand Dauphin, is on the market for £1.5m.

A spate of jewellery-related crimes was reported in the last month, sparking further concerns for those in the trade.

The Books and Works on Paper column on this week’s pages is Ian McKay’s last for ATG.

Auctioneer Chris Ewbank, who launched the Ewbank’s saleroom in Send, Surrey, has died.

Auction house Hansons has opened its sixth saleroom, this time in Hertfordshire.

A Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) portrait that made a record for any work sold at auction in Europe helped lift the latest series of Modern and Contemporary sales in London.

A Camden Passage jewellery dealer suffered a devastating loss of his entire stock after a theft from his stand at the London market.

Cotswold art gallery Trinity House Paintings is in administration.

A Brutus Eid Mar-type silver denarius, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, has become the most expensive numismatic object ever sold at auction in Scandinavia.

Among the busiest stands on the opening day of The Treasure House Fair that ran at the Chelsea Hospital site from June 22-26 was that of horology dealership Carter Marsh.

Elements of an avant garde silver and malachite table service designed by Josef Hoffman for the Palais Stoclet in Brussels sold to a single buyer for £505,000 (£636,300 including 26% buyer’s premium).

A work by Rebecca Solomon (1832-86) originally offered at Sotheby’s and later blocked from export to the US has been bought by two UK museums.

A handwritten letter by the 26-year-old Mozart coming up for auction at Christie’s reveals a tricky love life.