Front Page and News

An unexpected highlight of a recent sale at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet was this set of four early real tennis rackets. They came from a client in the North of England and had been owned by the family for many years.

Unbolted continues its move into the art and antiques sector with Holts the latest firm to offer its lending services to customers.

Leaders of four African countries have called on the UK and the EU to ban the trade in antique ivory to help stop elephant poaching.

William George, an online-only auctioneer which ceased trading antique ivory in 2017, is setting up a group called Auctioneers Against Ivory for auctioneers considering their own antique ivory strategies.

Art market experts are calling for the trade to tackle the widely reported claim that the sector is unregulated, made by a defendant in a $50m international money-laundering case.

London auctioneer Roseberys is to offer a previously unpublished sketch by John Constable on March 21.

A long-running dispute over the export of an important Old Master painting from Portugal has finally been settled after authorities ended an attempt to have the work repatriated.

LAPADA, the Association of Art & Antiques Dealers, has appointed a former head of the Chelsea Flower Show as its new fairs and events director.

The run of recent six-figure auction sums in the English regions now includes Cheffins posting a house record in Cambridge.

The landlord behind the redevelopment of Cork Street in Mayfair is planning a clutch of new gallery openings and art events as building work comes to an end.

A sensational result emerged for the artist-potter Hans Coper (1920-81) at the 20th Century & Contemporary sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter.

Clients of the collapsed Australian auction house Mossgreen are preparing to challenge the fees being demanded by firm’s administrators to collect their own goods.

An Old Master painting hung in the spare bedroom of a family home in Oxfordshire sold for a surprise £440,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Holloway’s of Banbury.

The script for the very first Doctor Who episode owned by the first actor to play the role is coming up at auction in the West Midlands.

Works by Pablo Picasso (1881- 1973) dominated the latest series of Impressionist and Modern art auctions in London, with Gurr Johns securing nearly all of them.

Private sales and Asian buyers helped Sotheby’s report a 12% jump in sales last year to $5.5bn (£4bn).

The British Antique Dealers’ Association is hoping its new website, which launches this week ahead of the BADA 2018 fair (March 14-20), will propel dealer members and their stock to the top of internet search rankings when buyers are looking for antique objects from dealers.

Regional auction houses accounted for over a quarter of the UK auction market in 2017.

Furnishings that were once part of the family home of Gertrude Bell, one of the most fascinating figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are coming up at auction at Tennants in North Yorkshire on March 17.

BAMF chairman and new chief executive address LAPADA conference