What’s popular
Big-selling Asian art lots continued to command clicks in 2016. Charles Hanson led the way with a dramatic rostrum performance – broadcast live on thesaleroom.com and preserved on antiquestradegazette.com – as he sold a Qianlong vase for a house-record £650,000.
The table (below) presents our pick of the most viewed stories of 2016, highlighting key industry moments and trends.
Most viewed in 2016
1 Charles Hanson sells Qianlong vase for £650,000
2 Old Master market faces “art scandal of the century”
3 Ex-Bloomsbury staff join Forum Auctions
4 Ancient coin banned from eBay due to Nazi-like symbol
5 Madonna and Bjork shine at London fashion auction
6 UK dealers told to destroy ivory antiques in US
7 Tributes paid to Antiques Roadshow’s Graham Lay
8 Taxi driver’s £40 car boot miniature find worth £75,000
9 ‘Lost’ Victorian picture ‘best ever’ on Antiques Roadshow
10 A £10 car boot Chinese vase gets £30,000 estimate
Car-boot finds are perennial web gold dust: an Indian miniature consigned by a London taxi driver to Roseberys made £75,000 and a £10 enamel vase that turned out to be Chinese imperial sold for £50,000 at Woolley & Wallis. Both attracted plenty of online hits.
Controversy in its multifarious forms also brought large numbers of views, whether relating to possible Old Master fakes, UK dealers being told to destroy ivory antiques when attempting to import them into the US, or the decision by eBay to halt the sale of a 4th or 5th century BC Thracian coin due to its “Nazi-like” symbol (right).
