Front Page and News

Bonhams and Sotheby’s have joined Christie’s in postponing their March New York Asian art auctions due to the spread of coronavirus.

Bonhams has made a number of personnel changes this month as global CEO Matthew Girling departs.

Unique artwork created to feature on film posters is proving to be a strong aspect of the popular entertainment collecting field.

A watercolour by Michel-Jean Cazabon (1813-88), Trinidad’s first internationally known artist, sold for £24,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) in Lancashire earlier this month.

The overall total from the latest London series of Contemporary art auctions was down year-on-year. With one day sale still to run at the time of going to press, the running total of £197.4m from the sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips compared to £253.9m from the equivalent sales in 2019.

A leading interior designer will tell a gathering of antiques dealers next month that the trade has been slow to promote antiques as reused items – at a time when sustainability and climate change dominate political and commercial agendas.

This large and imposing portrait of Pauline Bonaparte, the younger sister of Napoleon, sold for$310,000 (£238,700) in New York last week.

The George Medal awarded to a brave boxer who stepped in to foil a kidnap attempt on Princess Anne is up for auction at Dix Noonan Webb in London with an estimate of £15,000-20,000 on March 4-5.

Three Lalique glass panels designed for the dining car of the Côte d’Azur Pullman Express train in 1928 will be offered at auction next week. The Joint Special Managers of Thomas Cook Group are the vendors.

The reported trafficking of cultural heritage objects is small and in decline, according to analysis by the IADAA (International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art).

The latest Impressionist & Modern auctions in London posted the lowest total for a February series in this category for a decade.

Gustav Detring (1842-1913) and Constantin von Hanneken (1854-1925) were two of the most influential Germans living and working in China in the late 19th century.

Sovereign Rarities (20% buyer’s premium) conducted its second joint auction with The Royal Mint in the second half of last year.

A remarkable collection of books from The Birmingham Assay Office Library will be offered at Forum Auctions in London on March 26.

The outbreak and spread of the coronavirus has forced art fairs and auctions to postpone and cancel in light of the increasing seriousness of the situation.

Business was certainly hard-won but the elite of Britain and Ireland’s regional fine art auction houses enjoyed a largely positive 2019.

International Autograph Auctions Ltd has ceased trading and is being placed in voluntary liquidation.

A group of objects belonging to dealers who took part in the BRAFA art fair in Brussels were seized following an investigation by Interpol.

A remarkable piece of Qing porcelain sold for $270,000 at Pook & Pook in Downington, Pennsylvania.

“As soon as the vendor pulled the board from her bag, I recognised something of serious interest.”