Art and antiques news from 2009

THE petition to persuade the Government to ease business rates in support of the art and antiques industry is gathering momentum.

After more than 40 years, Sotheby’s have scrapped their annual sale at Gleneagles and will now hold biannual sales of Scottish art in London.

FRANK Wilson's Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) is generally ranked by enthusiasts of Soul music as a very good rather than a great single, but in the collecting community it has acquired legendary status. Only two copies of the original pressing appear to have survived.

Washington, D.C. auctioneers Sloans & Kenyon found this English period work by the Italian Baroque painter Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734) in the basement of a local home.

Conservative estimates tailored to new realities enabled the New York flagship sales of post-War and contemporary art to set solid selling rates. But, for both major houses, the financial gulf between this year and 2008 was enormous.

LONDON-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have cancelled this year's New York International Art & Design Fair, slated for October 2 to 7.

AN opportunist thief has stolen some highly individual and recognisable objects from the Lodge at Eton College.

THE National Association of Goldsmiths (NAG) and insurers T.H. March are launching an initiative aimed at gathering better intelligence on crime.

THIS pair of Irish George III mahogany and brass-bound peat buckets drew multiple bidders at Mellors & Kirk's two-day auction in Nottingham on April 30-May 1.

Thin catalogues and thin demand for aggressively-priced works by Modern masters characterised the recent sales of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York.

NEW York specialists in high-end English furniture, paintings and objects Dillingham and Co have closed their shop at 217 East 60th Street.

FLORIDA fairs impresario David Lester and his wife Lee Anne will launch the Miami International Art Fair at the Miami Beach Convention Center from January 6 to 10 next year.

SEVERE belt-tightening is the order of the day at Sotheby’s as the company ride out the downturn and position themselves to take strong advantage as the market recovers.

ATG Media have launched an award to find the Best Auctioneer on the Internet.

On May 14, Malvern auctioneer Philip Serrell will sell this 3.5oz silver floral engraved snuffbox marked for Nathaniel Mills, Birmingham 1836.

A YEAR that marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species has already produced several television and radio programmes on Darwin, and it was always to be expected that his saleroom profile might be high in 2009.

HE had received only a basic education and spoke only Dutch, but Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is today recognised as the greatest of the pioneering microscopists of the 17th century.

A HOARD of James I gold unites, found in the wall of an Oxfordshire cellar 30 years ago, is expected to sell for £50,000 at London specialist auctioneers Morton & Eden on June 9-10.

THE deadly sin of avarice was the theme of this large 16th century Flemish tapestry, but the warning failed to temper the desire of bidders when it came up at Skinner's most recent sale of European furniture and decorative arts in Boston in the USA on April 11.

SOTHEBY’S Hong Kong spring sales series of classical, modern and contemporary Asian art, wine, jewellery and watches from April 4 to 8 were not as financially rewarding for the firm as in recent times.