Art and antiques news from 2009

THE Norfolk-based auctioneers of fine modern and antique guns, Holt’s, have signed a promotional deal with Land Rover that sees them become ambassadors for the all-terrain vehicles.

A WELL-ORGANISED gang targeted the premises of Cirencester auctioneers Moore Allen & Innocent on May 28, taking antiques with a combined value of between £20,000-40,000.

A NEW website has been launched which aims to do for antique silver what abebooks.com has done for the antiquarian and secondhand book trade.

EBAY UK have launched a new anti-counterfeit campaign and want to work closely with the antiques industry to beat the fakers.

SUSSEX auctioneer John Nicholson is claiming a significant breakthrough in establishing the existence of artist Pietro Psaier and his links with Andy Warhol.

DMG Antiques Fairs, organisers of four of the biggest antiques and collectors’ fairs in the UK, have been sold by their parent company.

COLOGNE auctioneers Van Ham offered this oil painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), hidden from public view for over 70 years, at their latest sale.

BONHAMS are moving their musical instrument department from New Bond Street to their Knightsbridge rooms.

TURN the leaves of ‘A sketchbook belonging to Lady Julia Conyers...’ and you will find some 80 drawings and watercolours by Lady Julia and her society friends that are for the most part unexceptional and predictable.

EBAY have now added a London High Court victory against a claim from luxury brand L’Oréal to the one they gained in France last month.

PICTURED here is a medal commemorating the taking of Porto Bello by Admiral Vernon in 1739. It was among the items stolen from a country house museum in south Derbyshire on the afternoon of May 20.

There were local, or at least county, connections when this large linocut print, ‘Church and Thunderstorm’ by Edward Bawden (1903-1989) was offered by Essex auctioneers Sworders at their spring Country House sale.

SALISBURY auctioneers Woolley & Wallis have broken their own UK regional record with the sale last week of a Qianlong jade carving of a water buffalo for £3.4m. It establishes a massive new UK landmark for any work of art sold at auction outside London.

THE Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) has stepped up its efforts to recover books stolen by its former president, David Slade, from Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.

THE organisers of The Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair have announced that they have chosen the 75th anniversary to take the event in a new direction. New disciplines brought in by a raft of new dealers will help broaden the appeal for today's collectors, says the fair's director Alison Vaissiere.

THE tide has turned in favour of eBay in the legal war over the sale of counterfeit goods on their site after a French court backed them against L’Oreal.

CHRISTIE’S Fine Art Storage Services (CFASS) have announced that they will open a new facility at The Singapore Freeport in January 2010, offering a secure tax-free location for the storage and transaction of fine art and antiques.

A metal detector enthusiast who pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud has been jailed for six months for selling modern fakes.

BURRELLS Antique Desks have won their case against rival dealer Steve Campbell in a dispute over his use of their name to divert customers to his business via the internet.

AFTER the resignation of the speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin last week, the subject of this cartoon of the 1830s could hardy have been more topical.