2012

ONLINE auction house Auction Atrium has ceased trading, still owing a six-figure sum to consignors. The firm is likely to formally enter liquidation later this month. How much vendors and other creditors receive ultimately depends on the value placed upon the assets of the firm.

PRICES for Henry Moore (1898-1986) have been rising consistently in recent years, but the performance of this large-scale bronze sculpture at auction last week dramatically lifted the artist to previously unseen levels.

A DETAILED survey of the relationship between antiques dealers and their banks has highlighted a serious breakdown in communication and little inclination on the part of the financial institutions to understand the special nature of the antiques business.

THERE is new hope for the Wedgwood Museum archive after UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) added it to its Memory of the World register.

REPORTS have emerged that the Qatari Royal family has paid a record amount for any work of art ever sold.

Posters of St Moritz, Davos, Gstaad continue to dominate at ski sales in London.

Bidders in the room, on the phones and the internet were all in action last week to contest the 475-lot sale of the collection of Will Fisher, founder of London dealers Jamb, at Christie’s South Kensington.

THE shortlist for Britain’s Best Antiques Awards is now in – the winners to be announced next month.

PRIVATE treaty sales remain at the heart of Christie’s growth strategy, as the company’s latest statement underlines.

FIGURES just released show substantial growth in London’s coins market for 2011.

Dublin fine art auctioneers James Adam believe uncertainty regarding the euro has helped rather than hindered the Irish art market.

THE draft Metal Theft (Prevention) Bill before Parliament makes no distinction between those dealing in general scrap and the trade in scrap precious metal.

AUCTION Atrium, the online auction house based in Kensington Church Street, London, has announced that it has ceased trading.

SOTHEBY’S have posted $4.9bn in worldwide sales for 2011, marginally up on 2010. The United States remains the company's primary market, accounting for just over $1.9bn of sales, with the UK second at $1.5bn. Continental Europe yielded $527m, while Asia - largely Hong Kong-based sales - totalled $959m.

THE Oak Sale at Bonhams Chester is not the obvious place to find a 16th century Indo-Portuguese chair. Hiding in plain sight at the January 19 auction of predominantly British vernacular design was a rare survivor.

EVIDENCE that the trade is not taking the introduction of the beefed up Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) lightly is beginning to emerge.

AT Waterloo, Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) is supposed to have directed the battle from a position near the crossroads of the Brussels and Ohain roads.

DETAILS have emerged of a brutal and ruthlessly executed robbery which saw two armed men break into the home of an elderly art dealer in Northern Ireland on January 3.

After massive falls in the previous two years, the Antique Collectors’ Club’s Annual Furniture Index (AFI) dropped by a modest two per cent in 2011.

THE small factory at Limehouse, operating on the banks of the Thames just to the east of the Tower of London from 1745-1748, was one of the pioneers of English porcelain manufacture.