Art and antiques news from 2010

GIORGIO Corbelli, president of Italian auction house Finarte, has been given a 20-month jail sentence on charges related to financial dishonesty.

GORRINGES are to offer for sale paintings and works of art belonging to Grace Higgens, the former housekeeper at Charleston Farmhouse, the Bloomsbury Group's Sussex retreat.

BONHAMS have made significant changes to their senior management team.

HERITAGE Auction Galleries will open a new gallery in New York in September. They have leased a ground-floor space, located at 445 Park Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets.

IN his day the work of the Lincolnshire woodcarver Thomas Wilkinson Wallis (1822-1903), who set up business in Louth in 1843, was favourably compared with that of the most famous English woodcarver of all, Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721).

A NEW textile conservation centre – the first of its kind in the UK – is to be established at the University of Glasgow.

SINCE the last ATG conference in May 2009, the vision that Nigel Worboys outlined is now a reality, with many businesses following his lead.

LAPADA chief executive Sarah Percy-Davies has made significant inroads into the Russian domestic market on behalf of British dealers as part of an official British trade delegation.

A NEW auction record has been set for any painting by a Scottish Colourist after Tulips by Samuel John Peploe (1871-1935) sold for £520,000 at Sotheby's.

LEADING art market analyst Dr Clare McAndrew had to address delegates by loudspeaker phone at the annual LAPADA conference, held at Waddesdon Manor on April 21.

SPEAKING to ATG at the end of last week, London Old Master dealer Johnny Van Haeften still had not actually seen the monumental painting by Frans Francken II (1581-1642) for which he paid 6.1m euros (£5.65m) at Dorotheum’s Old Master sale in Vienna on April 21.

TIFFANY have lost on most counts in their appeal against a ruling in a US federal district court backing eBay over the sale of the firm’s jewellery.

A LONG-lost array of paintings, prints, books and drawings owned by legendary art dealer Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939) will be one of the talking points of the Paris summer season when it goes on sale at Sotheby’s on June 29.

THE world’s scarcest Matchbox car achieved a record-breaking price at an auction in Harrogate.

It was in October 2007 that I was personally able to break the news to Costas Kleanthous that Kensington and Chelsea Council had decided to effectively create an enclave in Portobello for small shops which could act as a blueprint for other shopping and tourist destinations across Britain.

THE people of Portobello cheered at Kensington and Chelsea town hall as their local councillor demanded an investigation into “what could prove an absolute scandal” concerning the development site that now houses the local All Saints store.

John Parry’s collection of early English furniture and works of art had not been long in the making.

EBAY buyers have taken matters into their own hands after the online giant failed to act against sales of fakes, despite being alerted to the problem on numerous occasions.

THE demand for Chinese works of art goes on apace. In a week when all eyes and activity were centred on New York's Asian sale series, North Lincolnshire auctioneers Brown and Co of Brigg sold this carved rhinoceros horn libation cup for £80,000.

NORTH East auctioneer Jim Railton has been fined £1000 after being charged over the sale of an Edwardian collection of birds’ eggs.