2011

SOTHEBY’S are to change the format of their sculpture works of art sales in London.

MASTERPIECE London has secured planning permission for the third edition of the lavish marquee fair next year.

DOMINIC Winter, who included the Alfred A. Charleswoth collection of old railway tickets as part of their recent collectors' and transport sale, had only a limited track record on which to rely – they sold a rare ticket for around £2000 some seven years ago.

A HIGHLIGHT of the autumn Russian art series in London was Sotheby's sell-out 127-lot sale of works from the family of Alexander Benois (1870-1960), a name synonymous with the Ballet Russes.

THE Birmingham Assay Office is launching a new one-day course, Buying Scrap Gold and Silver, on January.

SCAM guides have struck yet again, but finally the European Commission has launched an investigation and wants to hear from victims about their plight.

A new auction record for a medieval work of art was established at Christie's Paris

It may look like a textbook early 19th century silver teaset, but this unprepossessing three-piece service seen at Tennants of Leyburn, North Yorkshire on November 17-19 carried marks later identified as those of the early Australian silversmith Alexander Dick (c.1791-1843).

Lowestoft porcelain specialist and Suffolk auctioneer Russell Sprake marked 50 years in the auction business last month with perhaps his finest ever sale – and a record price for the factory at auction.

THE days of informal scrapping of precious metals such as gold and silver could well be numbered after a new Bill was put before Parliament on November 15 to tackle theft.

SPINK have acquired Hong Kong-based Phila China, a philatelic auction house founded by Anna Lee.

TWO years since it launched, the jewellery trade’s anti-crime alert network, SaferGems, has been helping to forge stronger links between the UK’s 43 different police forces.

ONE SaferGems alert featured two men wanted in connection with a jewellery theft at a discount jewellery shop in Spring Bank, Hull. During the incident one offender distracted the jeweller while the other stole jewellery to the value of £2300.

COMPETITION between major collectors and new players in the market for L.S. Lowry saw a host of dramatic prices in London last week as Christie's offered 14 works from the collection of the late hotel magnate Lord Forte.

RAMRAIDERS have smashed their way into the Court Barn Museum, home to the Guild of Handicrafts collection, and stolen unique pieces of silver.

IN a world where instant electronic communication and exchange of information is available to all, two lengths of original Morse code ticker-tape seem akin to tele-antiquities.

ESTABLISHING a satisfactory relationship with a bank appears to be one of the major difficulties facing art and antiques dealers in the current economic climate.

SOTHEBY’S latest set of results showed the sustained resilience of the global art market against the backdrop of general economic turmoil.

HOARDINGS set to block the front entrance of Grays antiques centre in London’s West End for up to three years have already hit trade, say dealers.

ATG Editor-in-Chief Mark Bridge, centre, announced the winners of the Antiques Trade Gazette 2011 Awards for outstanding works of art on sale during Asian Art in London at the Gala Party in The Dome at the Victoria and Albert Museum on November 8.