Front Page and News

Members of the British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) have called for an extraordinary general meeting as some dealers reacted with anger and confusion at news that the association’s flagship London fair had been sold.

Estimated at £400-600, a Chinese porcelain vase was bid to £1.3m at an auction in Hampshire last week.

This Italian marble bust of an emperor, catalogued as 17th century after the antique, provided a moment of saleroom drama at Sworders’ Fine Interiors auction in Stansted on September 10.

A gold, jade and rock crystal model of a sedan chair by Fabergé was hammered down at £380,000 last week – a new house record for a Gloucestershire auctioneer.

English furniture dealership Apter Fredericks has closed the doors of its Fulham Road gallery after 73 years and will now focus its efforts online and at fairs.

A set of 12 silver plates by Gilbert Marks, offered by The Peartree Collection, were among the stand-out sales from the opening hours of the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair.

‘The fair needs to develop. It was time to bring in a broader range of expertise and knowledge’ says BADA chief Marco Forgione

Sotheby’s opened its September Asia Week auctions in New York on September 10 with the $8.3m sale of Chinese art consigned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Japanese museum has claimed it bought a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds “in good faith and without fault from a respectable art dealer” after it was identified as being stolen from a UK stately home.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association has sold a majority stake in its annual fair to “make it sustainable for the future”.

Sussex auction house Burstow & Hewett has withdrawn a rare Maori cloak after its imminent sale was met by online threats and abuse.

Jeremy Lamond, Halls’ fine art director, is stepping down after 23 years at the firm.

The organisers of Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong have confirmed the event will proceed as planned, despite the ongoing anti-government protests in the city.

Dealer Ian Shaw sold this Tutsi shield, made of lightweight wood with natural pigment and offered for £13,000, to an interior designer from Denmark at last week’s 'Tribal Art London' fair.

Could these be the opera glasses used by Mary Lincoln on the night her husband was assassinated? Colchester auction house Reeman Dansie will offer them for sale on September 24-25 with a guide price of £10,000-20,000.

A 15% tax on imports into the US of art, antiques and manuscripts made in China took effect on September 1.

Sotheby’s shareholders have approved a $3.7bn deal to sell the company to media and telecoms entrepreneur Patrick Drahi.