London

IN a bid to boost pre-Christmas trade at Friday's Bermondsey Antiques Market, Southwark Council have waived the usual stand charge of £30 and only the £10 stall rental charge for a 9 x 3ft stall will apply. This offer applies for November 20 only.

ROYAL Mail have lost another court case over their promise to cover losses under their special delivery services, and face further legal action. Yet they will still not change the terms and conditions that landed them in court.

IF you’re looking for a painting that sums up the problems suffered by the contemporary art market over the last year, then this work by Peter Doig (b.1959) is a pretty good candidate.

THE organisers of Masterpiece, one of the hopefuls in the race to fill the gap left by the Grosvenor House fair, hope to have their venue settled by the end of the year.

THE London art trade has welcomed the news that the Acquisitions, Export and Loans Unit’s (AELU) move to Birmingham has been delayed by three months.

AMONG the more run-of-the-mill furnishings that constitute the bulk of the popular Interiors sales at Christie’s South Kensington, there are often a handful of more quirky items.

LONDON-based international fair organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have announced that they will launch a new fair in London next summer, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the demise of Grosvenor House.

BORN a wealthy European aristocrat and court painter to a Turkish Sultan, the Maltese count Vittorio Amadeo Preziosi (1816-1882) was nevertheless a familiar figure among the back streets of Istanbul.

LEADING London art dealer Richard Green is in the process of demolishing his Old Masters gallery at 33 New Bond Street, prior to completely rebuilding a new five-storey gallery.

A DETAILED examination of Laura Knight's 1915 oil Carnaval by Christie's specialist Tom Rooth revealed the edge of not one but two stretched canvases.

THE new auction season kicked off in earnest in New York with one of the strongest market sectors – Asian works of art.

BONHAMS have set up a new department devoted to sales of photography joining Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bloomsbury Auctions in mounting specialist stand-alone sales in London in this field.

IT all seemed done and dusted as the galleries were cleared and the landlords put To Let signs in the front window. But now it appears there may be life in the Partridge name yet, as an unnamed consortium announced last week that it had acquired the brand.

THE first tangible evidence of the new Dreweatt-Bloomsbury alliance will be the two-day preview at Bloomsbury's rooms in Maddox Street for Puritan Values, Designers and Makers 1850-1950, the 400-lot auction of the Anthony Geering collection.

THE removal men descended on New Bond Street last week to begin the task of clearing out the stock at Partridge. By the morning of Friday, September 4, the biggest object left in the window was a large roll of bubblewrap being used to pack up the antiques for loading onto several lorries parked along the street.

FROM September 25 to 27 The London Art Book Fair will be launched at the newly expanded Whitechapel Art Gallery in Whitechapel High Street London E1.

LONDON’S Courtauld Institute of Art have stated that their Witt and Conway Libraries will continue to remain open to the public five days a week and their Photographic Survey collections will remain accessible by appointment.

Mallett have put on hold plans to leave Bond Street. In the wake of a massive rent rise last year, the London dealers announced their intended departure from the luxury goods thoroughfare, but they have been unable to pass on the lease of the building.

Furniture Futures is the first in a new series of biennial design symposia at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

MATTHEW Barton, who has over 20 years experience in the auction business, will hold his first sale under his own banner on November 25 in West Kensington.