Art and antiques news from 2009

CHRISTIE’S are to replace a wide range of specialist picture sales with a new sale category incorporating 600 years of traditional Western art. The change will be implemented worldwide from May across their salerooms in London, New York, Milan, Paris and Amsterdam.

ANTIQUES delivery specialist Mail Boxes Etc. have taken on a logistical challenge and a half, having agreed to handle the shipping for the forthcoming Shambles Museum sale.

LEADING independent private and commercial foreign exchange providers Currencies Direct are hosting two seminars for LAPADA members to help them get better value on their foreign payments.

Gary Don Auctioneers of Leeds was the first subject of Keep It In The Family, a new series of four documentaries that follows a different family business with a succession dilemma each week.

POLICE are trying to locate the owners of a painted cast iron British Coat of Arms which was recovered in the Westcliff area of Scunthorpe in the middle of January. It is believed to have been stolen.

DEALERS at Antiquarius have been left looking for a new home after the final death knells were sounded for the King’s Road antiques centre last week.

TWO former senior executives of dmg World Media have bought the three American SOFA fairs and the Charlotte, North Carolina showground fair from their former company.

THIRTY antiquarian books on the subject of silver are now available in digital form online.

CHRISTIE’S have confirmed that their Antiquities department at South Kensington will continue as before, with sales in April and October.

LONDON Sculpture Week, which was scheduled for June 12 to 19, has been suspended due to lack of sponsorship.

The Arts Council have reported that over £10.5m worth of arts and crafts sales have been generated by its Own Art programme since the scheme's April 2004 launch.

Bonhams sold their second WWII Spitfire aircraft in the space of seven months last week when businessman Steven Brooks paid £1.58m plus premium for a TR Mark IX specification model at an auction held at the Hendon RAF Museum on April 20. The plane had been estimated to make in the region of £1.5-£2m.

POLICE have asked for information about a theft that took place at Cavendish Antiques and Interiors in Suffolk in the early hours of April 11.

eBay are to introduce a new dispute-resolution process in America that includes the offer of a toll-free telephone number to discuss problems verbally with Ebay customer support.

AFTER nine years in Salisbury, silver specialist Alex Butcher is to leave Woolley & Wallis to join Lawrences of Crewkerne.

DREWEATTS will sell the stock of Chevertons at the Donnington Priory salerooms on May 12.

This rare Märklin toy, the so-called Fidelitas clown caravan, proved the highlight of the sale of Part I of the Donald Kaufman collection conducted 'without reserve' by Bertoia Auctions of Vineland, New Jersey on March 19-21.

More details have emerged regarding the ‘breach-of-contract’ lawsuit which claims that Christie’s backed out of a $40m guarantee made to secure a Francis Bacon self-portrait for sale.

ELIZABETH Craven was no shrinking violet, even when judged by the freer moral standards of 18th century England.

A US picture dealer has pleaded guilty to falsifying business records while a director at New York’s Salander O’Reilly Galleries.