Art and antiques news from 2015

Two leading online bidding platforms with a combined monthly audience of more than 800,000 have forged a partnership targeting fine art auctioneers and buyers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Antiquities dealers ArtAncient were the winners of the best stand award at the 2015 LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair.

Online auction house Auctionata have acquired the London-based online valuation company ValueMyStuff.

The perpetrator of a chilling raid on an antiques shop in Honiton more than a year ago has been jailed.

The sports writers will have turned their attention to the rugby world cup by the time you read this, but at ATG we are focusing on differently shaped balls.

Fans of Lord Snooty and his Pals, Big Eggo, Morgyn the Mighty and dear Contrary Mary were drawn to the Comic Book Auctions sale of September 13 by the appearance of a good copy of the very first issue of the Beano.

LAPADA (the Association of Art & Antiques Dealers) is to relaunch its website as a subscription-based online marketplace in a bid to boost the digital presence of its 600-plus members.

A bizarre story of an artist who claimed her old studio sold pieces of paint spattered carpet as her original work has appeared in the press recently, drawing attention to the thorny issue of copyright and false attribution.

Florence’s longstanding Antiques Fair, the ‘Biennale Internationale dell’ Antiquariato di Firenze’, opens next week in the city’s 17th century Palazzo Corsini, running from September 26 to October 4.

Online dealer marketplace 1stdibs has raised between $50m and $60m from venture capitalists Insight Venture Partners, Fortune magazine reports.

Estimated at £2000-3000 in the printed catalogue, this Italian casket drew such pre-sale interest that it was quickly upgraded in the online catalogue to £5000-7000.

The organisers of the ‘Olympia International Art Antiques Fair’ will shorten next year’s event from 11 days to seven following a poll of existing exhibitors.

Sotheby’s will open an office in Mumbai, as they bid to expand their Indian businesses with two ‘strategic’ appointments in the region.

The ‘Parcours des Mondes’, Paris’ annual tribal art trail, began last week in the Saint Germain quarter of the city.

The Law Commission is still keen to hear from collectors and dealers about the impact a legal definition of ‘antique firearm’ may have on the trade in period weapons.

An American businessman has been charged in a New York court accused of applying improper valuations to items sold from his art and antiques collection.

Phillips are to begin-streaming their sales live on eBay’s platform for upmarket auctions of fine art and antiques.

Exeter saleroom Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood will offer a well-provenanced oil by John Constable (1776-1837) in their October 6 fine art sale.

Items from the estate of Mary Burkett, former director of Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, attracted great excitement and plenty of competition at Mitchells of Cockermouth last week.

Victoria Borwick MP has pledged to lobby against possible changes in legislation that could adversely affect the art and antiques trade, telling the industry to “see me as your champion in parliament”.