2013

An early photographic album which has sold for a record-breaking £290,000 came into the hands of its first owner 140 years ago as a prize – for winning a pigeon-shooting competition.

The Bodleian Library has been given a £1.2m boost in its bid to raise £2.2m by the end of February to buy an important slice of photographic history.

It features nearly 212,000 oil paintings, created by 37,000 artists, including 391 works by Joshua Reynolds, 348 by Turner, 281 by Gainsborough, 273 by Walter Sickert, 189 by Stanley Spencer and 114 by Van Dyck. And it is available to view online – for free.

Two metal detectorists have been given suspended jail sentences in what is being hailed as a landmark case for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. It is the first time that such a ruling has been made since the scheme, which was piloted in the 1990s, came fully into force in 2003.

It features nearly 212,000 oil paintings, created by 37,000 artists, including 391 works by Joshua Reynolds, 348 by Turner, 281 by Gainsborough, 273 by Walter Sickert, 189 by Stanley Spencer and 114 by Van Dyck. And it is available to view online – for free.

Simon de Pury, the high-profile international auctioneer, has sold his remaining stake in Phillips de Pury & Company to The Mercury Group and stepped down as chairman.

An expert on Ethiopian history is asking dealers and auctioneers to be on the look-out for rare items taken from a collection built up over most of his lifetime.

Six pencil studies for The Days of Creation by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-98) carry an estimate of £150,000-250,000 at Bonhams’ 19th century art sale in New Bond Street on January 23.

Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s three-day fine art sale on January 29-31 in Exeter includes several photographs possibly taken by the founder of the Photographic Society, Roger Fenton (1819-69).

The first sale of the year for Woolley & Wallis’ jewellery department takes place on January 24 in Salisbury.

This Shirvan Marasali prayer rug is part of a private collection of Caucasian rugs consigned to Mallams’ sale in Oxford on January 23.

Shropshire auctioneers Halls’ new multi-million-pound headquarters and fine art salerooms will open for business on March 1 next year.

International and Collectors’ Fairs are going under cover – to launch a new fair to run four times next year.

A rare Holtzapffel & Company rose engine lathe turned a few heads at Skinner’s recent Science, Technology and Clocks sale to take $190,000 (£124,185) as the top lot of the day.

Auction Team Breker in Cologne have sold a technical rarity of the highest order – one of the six known working models of the first computer ever made by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the founders of Apple.

The traditional pre-Christmas auctions in Dublin often see some of the best Irish art of the year on the market and, despite the sector still being tough going, a good number of works by leading names appeared this time round.

Executed c.1929, this abstract composition by Mainie Jellett (1897-1944) drew significant interest when it appeared at de Veres’ sale in Dublin on November 27.

The highly distinctive works on paper by William Conor (1884-1968) documenting working-class life in Ulster come up pretty regularly at auction, mainly because there are simply a lot of them around.

This portrait of Sinead O’Connor as a young girl was consigned to Whyte’s sale on November 26 by the singer herself.

The top lot at Ross’s sale in Belfast on December 5 was this painting ‘Ballyconneely Pony Show’ by Kenneth Webb (b.1927).