London

TO the connoisseurial mind, it was not the paintings that lit up the Old Master series in London in early July but rather three rediscovered drawings by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) offered in a dedicated Old Master and 19th century works on paper sale at Christie’s on July 8.

Two major silver collections will be sold by UK provincial salerooms in the autumn season. Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull will offer for sale the first part of the Chen collection in London on November 23, while Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis will complement their October silver sale with a single-owner catalogue devoted to the collection of the late George Petzall.

A COLLECTION of gold boxes that hadn’t seen the light of day for 200 years, a charming collection of novelty silver animals, a good quality spoon collection and plenty else in between all contributed to the highest total ever seen for a silver sale at Bonhams Bond Street on July 2.

retail property investment company London & Associated Properties, have appealed against the rejection of their plans to redevelop King’s Road antiques centre Antiquarius.

LORD Ashcroft’s Victoria Cross collection – the largest in the world – is to go on public display following his £5m donation to the Imperial War Museum. The news comes as the museum has also received a donation from the Art Fund to purchase an important watercolur by Keith Vaughan (1912-1977) at auction.

ANTIQUES shops in the West End of London are being warned to watch out for a man who has been stealing valuable works of art using cloned credit cards.

THIS year’s Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors conference will be a two-day event running on Thursday and Friday, October 16 and 17, in south west London.

A rediscovered painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) was the toast of the Old Master auction series in London last week. Missing for almost 200 years and presumed to have been destroyed, La Surprise was offered at Christie’s evening sale on July 8.

AT their Council meeting last week the British Antique Dealers Association decided on no further action regarding complaints by some members that well-known Kent dealer and fellow member Lennox Cato was fitted with a microphone while carrying out vetting duties at last month's Olympia International Art & Antiques Fair.

LONDON’S latest contemporary art sales saw vast sums of money continuing to be channelled into top-end post-War art as prices and confidence in the market remained high.

HOTSPUR and Jeremy, two of London’s long-established top antiques dealerships, are to cease trading later this year and hold a joint sale of their stock at Christie’s.

A NUMBER of dealers are having to leave The Van Arcade in Portobello Road after the owners issued a two-month notice to quit.

If Bonhams' July 2 sale of 20th century British art is anything to go by, demand for the humorous art of Beryl Cook (1926-2008) has strengthened since she died in May.

Swiss auctioneers Koller, who are celebrating 50 years of auctioneering with Jubiliee sales this September, are holding a two-day exhibition of highlights this week on July 9 and 10.

London’s flagship June Impressionist and Modern sales saw Christie’s and Sotheby’s notch up a premium-inclusive total of £298m between them in three days.

A TRIPLE portrait of three Elizabethan girls that sold for £620,000 at Christie’s sale of the Simon Sainsbury Collection has now been identified as a picture of the Egerton sisters from c.1601-2.

Sotheby’s have announced the highlight of their autumn series: an auction of new works consigned by Damien Hirst on September 15-16.

AN historic and important medieval scientific instrument, known as the Canterbury Quadrant, has been saved for the nation. St James’s specialist dealers Trevor Philip and Sons have sold the quadrant to the British Museum for £411,250.

Christie’s King Street devoted an entire day to traditional English furnishings when a 369-lot all-day sale of the collection of the late Simon Sainsbury was followed by a highly select, mixed-owner, 12-lot evening auction of what they termed “exceptional furniture”.

The latest addition to the London street art calendar took place at Village Underground in Shoreditch on June 17, where Dreweatts became the first auctioneer from outside London to host a dedicated Urban Art Sale.