Art and antiques news from 2015

Eight men have been charged in connection with the Hatton Garden heist following 12 coordinated raids across London and Kent by officers from Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad.

This interior scene by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) set an artist’s record when it was knocked down at £1.7m at Sotheby’s in London.

From 2016, the ‘Works on Paper Fair’ will move venue from the Science Museum to the nearby Royal Geographical Society, also in Exhibition Road, South Kensington.

This print ‘Unhappy Courtship’ by Dame Paula Rego (b.1935) is estimated at £2000-3000 at a charity sale being conducted by Roseberys.

For a huge model of what was once the world’s largest ship, a whopping price is a suitable result at auction.

Attracting collectors and experts from around the world, the third edition of ‘Asia Week Hong Kong’ will take place from May 27 to June 11.

The latest Modern and Contemporary art auctions in New York took the market to new heights with $2.73bn (£1.84bn) changing hands over two weeks of flagship sales.

Sir John Soane’s private apartments will be unveiled this week as the second stage of the refurbishment of the museum in his former home is completed.

This exceptionally rare Sancai ‘phoenix-head’ ewer from the early Tang dynasty was among the highlights of the week-long Asian art series of sales held in London.

Christie’s evening sale of post-war and Contemporary art last night posted a premium-inclusive total of $658.5m (£445m) as the bumper fortnight of auctions continued in New York.

The two outstanding blue dash chargers offered at a recent sale held by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter form part of a small but distinctive group of early 18th century delft dishes boldly painted with a variety of quirky bird, animal and figure subjects.

Mark Rothko’s 'Untitled (Yellow and Blue)' led Sotheby’s sale of Contemporary art in New York last night.

A judge has hailed the “professionalism and integrity” of members of the trade who helped snare a thief who stole antiques and art from her wealthy employer.

A new high for any work of art sold at auction came at Christie’s New York last night as Pablo Picasso’s ‘Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)’ sold at $160m (£108.1m).

Global online art sales grew by 68% in 2014 to total $2.64bn, say Hiscox, the international specialist insurer, in their third annual survey of the market.

The English Ceramic Circle (ECC) will hold a study day titled ‘Eat, Drink & Be Merry’ in conjunction with the ‘Art Antiques London’ fair in Kensington Gardens on June 16.

Two lantern clocks engraved with the signature ‘Thomas Loomes at ye mermayd in Lothbury’ recently appeared at auction within days of each other.

The Lockheed Lounge by Australian designer Marc Newson beat its own record as the most expensive work to sell at auction by a living designer when it fetched £2.1m at Phillips in London.

A leading dealer in Japanese works of art says he will go out of business if sales of ivory in the UK are banned.

Briefly owned by Louis XVI, who intended them for the Louvre, this 13in (33.5cm) high pair of fine gilt-bronze-mounted kakiemon porcelain and Egyptian porphyry brûle parfums sold for £1.65m at Sotheby’s in London this week.