London

THE London Business School hosts the Second 2nd annual Art Investment Conference, The Science & Passion of Art Investing on Friday May 30.

Dreweatts have secured a preview for their forthcoming Urban Art sale at Selfridges.

Partridge Fine Art are to roll out a summer programme of exhibitions and other events at their Bond Street gallery, playing host to major names in the art and antiques trade in the process.

A rare intervention by the London Assay Office has resulted in the wholesale withdrawal of a 124-lot collection of silver bosun’s calls scheduled to be sold in London last week.

The leader of Islington Council has reaffirmed his commitment to supporting the dealers in The Mall in Camden Passage. This follows the decision by the planning committee to reject the landlord’s proposals to redevelop the antiques centre in the North London thoroughfare.

Two auctioneers, two Gérôme sculptures, but two very different estimates

DEALERS and supporters of the antiques trade in Camden Passage are celebrating after Islington Council threw out the proposals to redevelop The Mall.

There was high drama at Christie's latest decorative arts sale in London, when half the £3.1m total came from this Glasgow school panel by Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, which sold to an American collector for £1.5m (plus premium).

All eyes were on this 3ft 3in (99cm) high Roman marble double bust of Bacchus and his lover Ariadne at Bonhams Antiquities sale on May 1.

READERS who watched the recent BBC drama Miss Austen Regrets will recall the scene in which a startled, bemused but not overly enthusiastic Jane is told by the Prince Regent’s librarian that his royal master is a great admirer and that she should feel quite at liberty to dedicate any new novel to the Prince.

MARK Law and his fellow directors of Amor Holdings have completed their acquisition of Partridge of Bond Street about 18 months ahead of schedule.

Two strong results for very different pieces were produced in Christie’s double bill of English furniture on April 24.

ONE of London’s oldest and most traditional art dealerships, Agnew’s, has sold its historic galleries in Bond Street and will downsize its Old Master paintings department to concentrate on contemporary art.

Christie’s are confidently expecting to set a new auction record for British furniture in London on June 18 when they offer a small but exclusive auction of just a dozen lots under the title 12: Exceptional furniture.

London’s latest series of Islamic auctions, held from April 7-11, produced a series of record-breaking statistics. The result of the week came at Sotheby’s on April 9 when a 14 1/2in (37cm) long iron and copper key to the ka’ba, the holiest place in the Islamic world, sold for £8.2m, establishing a new auction high for any Islamic work of art.

HAVING conducted over 2000 sales, freelance auctioneer Noel Lynch is used to standing on a platform. But on May 1, he will be looking for votes rather than bids as he aims to win a seat in the London Assembly for the Green Party.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association have suspended the membership of John Hobbs pending an inquiry into the allegations made against the Pimlico Road dealer in a national newspaper.

THREE bespoke Hardy reels were offered by Holts as part of their shooting sale at Princess Louise House, Hammersmith on March 20.

AFTER two stagings, Clarion Events, organisers of the Olympia fairs, have abandoned their new fixture FORM. In 2009, for the first time in 13 years, it looks likely that there there will be no Spring art, antiques or design fair at the West London exhibition complex.

THIS lifesize bust of the actor Charles Dance has been stolen from a car only days before it was due to be entered for exhibition.