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Following representations by the British Art Market Federation (BAMF) and the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers And Valuers (SOFAA) to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), auction houses were removed from the list of businesses that must remain closed due to the government's lockdown measures. DCMS said antique dealerships will also be able to open premises from June 1.

Offering a range of antiquities, Old Masters, 19th century art, sculpture, books and manuscripts, Christie’s ‘Classic Week’ of sales in New York will take place as a series of seven online auctions next month.

The art market is lobbying for the reopening of the Export Licensing Unit (ELU) which closed in March.

A Beijing enamel vase from a Scottish country house topped the Asian art sale held ‘behind closed doors’ by Lyon & Turnbull (25% buyer’s premium).

A Chinese blue and white vase achieved a hammer price of over £3m at an online auction that closed in Singapore last week.

The art and antiques sector could benefit from a boost by the UK government after the coronavirus pandemic when the focus shifts to growing international trade.

More previously unrecorded porcelain attributed to the John Bartlam factory of Cain Hoy, South Carolina, has emerged for sale in the UK.

International exports are predicted to return to growth following the easing of the lockdown in the UK. However, current art and antiques exports have slowed to a trickle.

A group of smuggled Mesopotamian ‘antiquities’ destined for collectors in the UK was discovered to be fake and seized by Border Force.

A long time ago, a poster costing $1.75 launched a series of films set in a galaxy far, far away. Forty-four years later, that series has become the phenomenally successful Star Wars blockbuster and a rare example of that same design sold at auction for £4000.

Sotheby’s and Christie’s have released figures to highlight how they have been able to manage the process of rapidly migrating their core business online during the coronavirus crisis.

The Paris auction centre Hôtel Drouot intends to reopen on May 25, pending “any government counter-argument”.

Bonhams has announced a revised sale schedule for May and June in the UK, US, Hong Kong and Australia.

Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, is consolidating its three offices into one large global headquarters to incorporate offices, salerooms and cataloguing space.

This set of nine portrait photographs of the Queen were those used to create Canadian bank notes in the 1960s.

After a month’s hiatus, a number of top-tier regional auction houses are returning to the rostrum to conduct ‘live online’ sales.

A silver penny of the boy king Edward the Martyr – the teenager who ruled Saxon Britain in the 10th century and was later venerated as a saint – has sold to a UK collector for £9000 at Dix Noonan Webb (24% buyer’s premium).