Art and antiques news from 2008

A retired Massachusetts lawyer has been found guilty of involvement in a major art theft that extends back three decades.

The Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS) have announced their search for a new chief executive after the resignation of Joanna Cave. During her eight years at the helm, Ms Cave led the campaign for the Artist’s Resale Right in the UK against fierce opposition from the British art trade.

The largest ever retrospective exhibition of the work of popular Modern British painter Edward Seago (1910-1974) will be held from September 8-19 at the Bond Street dealers Colnaghi, who represented the artist in his heyday.

HENLEY Antiques Centre may close at the end of September if the Grade II Listed building in Reading Road is sold to Henley-based property developer Nicolas Piasecki for a sum thought to be in the region of £1m.

The mass closure of small post offices around the country has been filling many column inches recently. Auctioneers W.H. Lane & Sons of Penzance are just one of many small businesses in more remote areas who believe their level of customer service will suffer when their local office is closed.

West Sussex auctioneers Worthing Auction Galleries and Scarborough Fine Art are no longer to merge.

Markenfield Hall, a 14th century moated manor house near Ripon in Yorkshire, has won the new Historic Houses Association and Sotheby’s Restoration Award for 2008.

Atlanta-based WorthPoint, an online database and social network for antiques and collectibles, have announced its intent to acquire GoAntiques, the online buying and selling network.

Every year English Heritage's open days offer free access to thousands of properties that are usually closed to the public. This year’s opportunity runs from September 11 to 14, and from a list of 3500 places there are two of particular interest to students of Arts & Crafts, one in Devon, the other in Surrey.

Bonhams have unveiled their new Scottish headquarters in Edinburgh after a 12-week works schedule has transformed building at 22 Queen Street, creating one large saleroom on the ground floor and two interlinked salerooms upstairs.

ISLINGTON Council has called on the owners of The Mall in Camden Passage to withdraw a new notice to quit issued to dealers at the North London antiques centre.

A DIARY kept by a sailor in Nelson’s navy was offered for sale in a US auction earlier this month. Given that diaries kept by ordinary sailors are exceptionally rare, there was huge interest in this visually striking document from both sides of the Atlantic with institutions, the trade and private collectors vying for the journal.

Ebay have announced more initiatives to speed their evolution from auction site to online retail environment.

Phillips de Pury are holding the first ever auction of hip hop jewellery on October 1 in New York. The sale, titled Hip Hop's Crown Jewels will offer some serious bling worn by some of the music movement's biggest stars.

Bonhams are to sell the contents of Great Brampton House, Herefordshire, home to the antiques business of long-standing dealer Lady Pidgeon. The sale will take place on October 1 onsite in the grounds of the estate and will feature over 700 lots of furniture, works of art, Asian ceramics and paintings.

Noble Investments, the parent company of coin and medal specialists Baldwins, have announced the acquisition of Apex Philatelics Limited – their first foray into the stamp market.

East Coast auctioneer Skinner are to move their suburban headquarters from Bolton to Marlborough, Massachusetts.

The Reserve Bank of Australia are to challenge eBay on their decision to make PayPal mandatory on all sales listings. The RBA says it will “shortly be holding discussions with PayPal [an eBay subsidiary] with a view to seeking the removal of these rules”.

THE extraordinary spat that has emerged over the existence of artist Pietro Psaier has taken another turn, with auctioneer John Nicholson pledging to publish the catalogue raisonée of his life and work.

THE Standsted Mountfitchet saleroom Sworders are to sell the contents of Lancotbury Manor, a timber-framed Tudor manor house near Dunstable that was the former home of David Cochrane and Bernard Gulley.