Art and antiques news from 2006

The discovery of two small panels by Fra Angelico (c.1395-1455) in a semi-detached house in Oxford ranks as one of the most remarkable art finds this country has ever witnessed.

Woolley and Wallis chairman Paul Viney was back in the Radio Two studio with Terry Wogan for the 21st year running on Thursday, as he took bids for lots put up in aid of the BBC Children In Need appeal.

The highlight of the Lowestoft porcelain sale conducted by enthusiast Russell H. Sprake at The Beaconsfield Club, Lowestoft on the evening of October 27 was this rare blue and white birth tablet.

Bonhams have announced details of the second phase in their UK regional restructure, which will be in place by Christmas.

November saw the art market hit a new high as Christie’s capped a remarkable series of New York sales with a record $240m (£131m) for post-War and Contemporary art.

Two sections of a painting by Francis Hayman are being officially re-united for the first time in almost three centuries at London dealer Philip Mould’s new gallery in Dover Street.

Sotheby’s have revised employee incentive packages in a move that should help stabilise costs and prevent key staff from being poached by rivals.

Feeding frenzy sets new record as bidders get their fill despite absence of Lloyd Webber Picasso

Domestic Interiors Database, a free online database charting the history of the domestic interior since 1400 in Western Europe and North America, is now available for study.

Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art sale of 83 lots on November 7 generated $238m (£131.5m) and was the auctioneers’ highest auction total since the previous Impressionist and Modern high water mark of May 1990.

More than 400 guests gathered to celebrate the Asian Art in London awards at the Burlington Gardens rooms of the Royal Academy on Wednesday night last week.

ALLEN Lewis Fairs will not be continuing to organise their antiques fairs held biannually at Portmeirion Town Hall in March and November.

The Frederick Parker Collection of Chairs, whose long-term future once looked uncertain, has now found a secure home as a study collection at London Metropolitan University.

FOUNDED in 1893, Malvern Girls College in Great Malvern, Worcestershire was housed in a building that was once a grand hotel in the town’s heyday as a spa.

LAPADA have confirmed that their Royal Academy fair will go ahead from May 10 to 13 next year.

IT was the Gothic furniture that was in strongest demand at Sotheby’s Haute Epoque sale in Bond Street last week, none more so than this massive 16th/17th oak refectory table that was bid to an astonishing £420,000 (plus premium).

DAVID Linley has been appointed chairman of Christie’s UK, replacing co-chairmen Dermot Chichester and Charles Cator.

Jackson Pollock’s 1948 drip painting Number 5 has set a new record for a painting. Mexican financier David Martinez has reportedly paid $140m for it in a private deal brokered by Sotheby’s.

Trading standards officers say close to 100 unpaid consignors have been unable to contact Gadsbys Auctioneers and Valuers, of Tuxford Road, Leicester after the company abruptly stopped trading two months ago.

MUSEUMS are so strapped for cash when it comes to buying works of art that only one in 50 says adding to their collections is now a top priority.