2012

AN eyewitness account of a raid on the Nomos/CNG coin sale in New York on January 4 reveals how police locked the doors of the saleroom and took down the details of all those inside.

ANTIQUE and secondhand jewellery valued at £430,000 has been stolen during a break-in at an auction house in south Glasgow following what appears to have been a carefully planned and meticulously timed raid.

The single-owner sale of English and Dutch drinking glasses collected by A.C. Hubbard offered over 500 lots to tempt enthusiasts into the saleroom.

THE Royal Mint stands accused of ripping off the public through sales of coins as collectables. Even the latest Olympic issue is affected, it is claimed. The problem has become so outrageous, says the UK's leading dealer in the secondary market in non-gold coins from the Royal Mint, that he has announced a boycott.

THIS alabaster sculpture by Barbara Hepworth (1903-75), entitled Two Rotating Forms II and dated to 1966, began the new year in style for Sworders.

THE latest UK government report on the export of works of art revealed that a modest £3.7m worth of treasures were saved for the nation in 2011 after being blocked from leaving the country last year.

SPEEDY government intervention is essential to save the Wedgwood Museum’s collection, descendants of Josiah Wedgwood say.

SOTHEBY’S Paris have announced that they have negotiated a private treaty sale to the Louvre for an undisclosed sum of a pair of silver tureens, covers, liners and stands by the French goldsmith Robert-Joseph Auguste.

Late December is when the Paris rooms traditionally produce their ‘bilan’ or annual sales figures. For 2011, as in 2010, there remain three front runners who are way ahead of the others.

The dates for the trio of major London summer fairs have now been released.

NASA are trying to play down news of a row with Apollo astronauts over the sale of artefacts from the space programme dating back to the 1960s and ‘70s.

In clock collecting, the gold standard of original condition can be a difficult one to meet. Clocks almost always needing repairs or replacement parts to keep functioning day in, day out for centuries.

Confirming the time-honoured ability of auctioneers to attract vendors in a recession, the UK’s top tier of regional salerooms enjoyed a largely positive 2011.

The much-anticipated 642-lot sale of the Prospero collection of classical Greek coins conducted by A.H. Baldwin & Sons of London (in association with Dmitry Markov of New York and M&M Numismatics Ltd of Washington DC) concluded after eight hours at 03.30 EST on January 5.

Modern living is continuing its migration away from formal dining, according to a new survey of 2000 UK households.

The Church of England has launched a competition for design students, designers, manufacturers and contractors to design a new form of church seating.

Hansons Auctioneers have opened a new permanent saleroom in Etwall, five miles from Derby city centre. The inaugural sale in the new premises will take place on Thursday, January 19.

SECURITY measures taken at Great Grooms antiques centre of Hungerford have foiled ramraiders.

A 19th century brass lectern stolen from a church in Wiltshire has emerged at an antiques fair in Romania.

AS sales go, it is hard to imagine one that could have been more of an auctioneer’s dream than the collection of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewellery and personal possessions.