Bonhams appoints Snijders to US role
Bonhams has hired Muys Snijders from Christie’s to head its Americas post-war and contemporary art department in New York.
The auction house was bought by private equity group Epiris in September and is focused on investing to grow its market share and expand in the US.
Restaurant to close
Bonhams is also closing its Michelin-starred New Bond Street restaurant to focus on its “core business of auctioneering”.
The decision is part of a “restructuring programme” started by Epiris in September.
The restaurant opened in January 2015 at its newly refurbished Bond Street head office and saleroom. The Bonhams café will continue to operate.
Madley now out as sale ‘hammerman’
Richard Madley has been replaced on the rostrum for the Indian Premier League cricket competition by former Christie’s auctioneer Hugh Edmeades.
Madley had conducted the annual televised auction of cricketers playing in the IPL for the past 11 years. He is known as ‘The Hammerman’ in India and there was an outcry on social media when his departure was revealed.
Fallen Madonna makes big money
The Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies painting from 1980s comedy ‘Allo ‘Allo sold for a hammer price of £15,000 (plus 18% buyer’s premium) against a £5000-£10,000 estimate at East Bristol Auctions.
The ‘Old Master’ known as 'The Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies', of ‘Allo ‘Allo fame, sold for £15,000 at East Bristol Auctions.
The prop that was a running joke in the sitcom was sold to a phone bidder in France.
The buyer lives in the same region in the north where the show is set.
Centred on a small-town café in Nouvion in German-occupied France during the Second World War, the ‘Allo ‘Allo series plotline featured the work by fictional painter van Klomp as a national treasure the Nazis were trying to steal.
Chinn to leave in Sotheby’s shake-up
Sotheby’s has reorganised its structure under CEO Tad Smith, with chief operating officer Adam Chinn to leave at the end of the year. He will be replaced by two new roles: a chief commercial officer and an operations and chief transformation officer.
Lawyer John Cahill, whose firm Cahill Cossu Noh & Robinson previously acted on behalf of Sotheby’s, will join as chief commercial officer. Ken Citron will join as operations and chief transformation officer. He was previously a consultant and before that he was Christie’s chief operating officer for five years.
Martin launches Cotswolds gallery
Former Flog It! TV presenter and dealer Paul Martin is to open a new art and antiques gallery in the historic Cotswold market town of Corsham in February.
He is refurbishing a former vintage boutique on the town’s high street and will sell a range of art, sculpture, glassware and furniture. The new gallery, to be called The Table Gallery, will launch with a guest appearance by pop artist Sir Peter Blake in late February.
Turner bridges view export put on hold
The UK government has issued an export bar for JMW Turner’s Walton Bridges, valued at £3.4m.
Following an application for an export licence by its owner after buying it at a Sotheby’s auction in July 201 8, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced it should be temporarily blocked from leaving the country in the hope a buyer can be found to pay the £3.4m price and keep it in the UK.
'Walton Bridges' by JMW Turner.
The government made the decision after the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) deemed it of “outstanding aesthetic importance and has an outstanding significance to the study of Turner (1775-1851)”.
Most read
The most clicked-on stories for week November 29-December 5 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 ‘Fallen Madonna With The Big Boobies’ painting from ‘Allo ‘Allo sells at Bristol auction
2 Antiques dealer and TV presenter Paul Martin to open new gallery in Wiltshire
3 UK issues export bar for Turner view sold at Sotheby’s auction
4 Roman bronze foot makes 10-times estimate at Bonhams
5 Renoir stolen from Viennese auction house Dorotheum
In Numbers
$2.4m
The hammer price, equivalent to £1.89m, paid at a New York auction for Einstein’s ‘God letter’ in which he outlines his views on religion – see this week's Books and Works on Paper section for full story.
A detail of a photograph showing Albert Einstein that sold at Artcurial in Paris.
