Art and antiques news from 2015

Valuable paintings stolen in a violent raid at a Somerset estate in 2009 have been returned to their original owners after being recovered by private investigators.

Christie’s have announced a major highlight for the upcoming New York auction series. They are offering Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché (Reclining Nude) which they have estimated at in excess of $100m.

The collection of the late A Alfred Taubman is to be offered in a series of sales in New York, starting this autumn.

Fancy spending thousands of pounds on a lovely lump of vomit?

Size and value often have an inverse relationship in the antiques world where small can be beautiful.

After leaving his role as co-Chairman of Old Master and 19th century art at Christie's in July, Richard Knight has formed a new partnership with Fabrizio Moretti of Moretti Fine Art, under the banner of Knight Moretti.

This recently rediscovered painting of Sir Winston Churchill by Walter Sickert (1860-1942) will be offered for sale for the first time at the 20/21 British Art Fair.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) has created the new post of chief executive officer as it seeks to raise its profile in the UK and overseas.

Sent for auction by a local lady who had been gifted it some 20 years ago, a late 19th century Koran ensured that the latest book sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood was their most successful ever.

The medal group awarded to the captain of the Lusitania on its final voyage, William Turner, is on offer at Lockdales of Ipswich, Suffolk.

Among the highlights of the current Wilkes & Curtis auction is a Fatimid gold dinar from the reign of the Caliph al-Hakim (AD996-1021).

Staffordshire auctioneers Richard Winterton have embarked on an expansion which will create six salerooms in total across two sites.

South Pacific war clubs continue to strike high prices at auctions, as this Tongan example sold in Stafford this month shows.

A bomb disposal team were called to Whittons Auctioneers in Honiton last week to remove several potentially dangerous wartime bombs.

Mayfair’s growing status as a design hotspot has been underlined by the news that another Parisian Art Deco dealer and specialist will open a gallery there in early October. Jean-Jacques Dutko is taking space in Davies Street.

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection with a theft at the Masterpiece fair held in July at the Royal Hospital site in Chelsea.

The Metropolitan Police has appealed to readers of ATG to contact them if they are offered two Georgian porcelain cups and saucer sets stolen from Osterley Park House, London in July.

The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on the earliest known on-the-spot depiction of Niagara Falls which sold at Christie’s South Kensington earlier this year.

West Sussex auctioneers Bellmans enjoyed considerable success on August 5, with a single-owner collection of around 30 Indian and Tibetan bronzes collected by a private vendor in the 1960s.

A new fair at London’s Olympia venue aims to revitalise the market in antique dolls, teddy bears and toys by attracting a fresh generation of collectors.