National Trust

This still life by Dutch artist Cornelis de Heem (1631-95) has been returned to its historical home, The National Trust’s Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire. The painting was bought through London dealer Johnny Van Haeften for £574,000.

Coins from the Late Iron Age and Republican Roman eras have been found buried together for the first time.

A MAN who stole antiques worth more than £1.2m from country houses across the country has been jailed for nine years.

CHRISTIE'S have announced that discussions with the National Trust for Scotland concerning a private sale of Dumfries House and its contents have ended.

THE servants’ quarters, very much a part of the history of any great house, are always hugely popular with visitors and the National Trust was keen to buy items at Christie’s (19.5/12% buyer's premium) Chirk Castle sale on June 21 which represented life below stairs.

The Exiled Collector: William Bankes and the Making of an English Country House by Anne Sebba, published by John Murray. ISBN 0719563283 £22.50hb.

THE National Trust of Scotland are looking to the Scottish Executive to lead the effort to prevent the piecemeal sale of the contents of Dumfries House, home to one of Scotland’s most celebrated collections of 18th century furniture.

SIX lots from Bonhams' (17.5/10% buyer's premium) March 22-24 sale at The Old Rectory, Banningham will be making their way back whence they came, National Trust curators having identified them (Bonhams had only spotted one) as having been bought by the Rev. Hall & Son at the 1951 contents sale of Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk. The house now belongs to the Trust which rescued it from demolition.

SHERLOCK Holmes was celebrated, among other things, for his research and monographs on cigar ash. Now English Heritage are to spend £88,000 on a similar exercise – but this time into dust.

The future of the Red House, the seminal Arts and Crafts building designed for William Morris by architect Philip Webb in 1859, was secured by the National Trust last month.

Helped by a £17.425m grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund – the largest sum it has ever given – the National Trust announced last week that it had bought Tyntesfield, a Victorian neo-gothic country house near Bristol.

Lovers of matters horticultural and supporters of the National Trust will be able to combine both interests this month. Sotheby’s September 25 sale of Garden Statuary and architectural items at Billingshurst includes a special 21-lot section titled The National Trust Gardens Year Auction comprising items donated to the Trust for sale as part of its Gardens Year celebrations with the aim of raising money for its Gardens Fund.

ARTS Minister Alan Howarth has announced a new list of works accepted for the nation in lieu of tax.