Art and antiques news from 2015

Staffordshire auctioneers Richard Winterton have embarked on an expansion which will create six salerooms in total across two sites.

South Pacific war clubs continue to strike high prices at auctions, as this Tongan example sold in Stafford this month shows.

A bomb disposal team were called to Whittons Auctioneers in Honiton last week to remove several potentially dangerous wartime bombs.

Mayfair’s growing status as a design hotspot has been underlined by the news that another Parisian Art Deco dealer and specialist will open a gallery there in early October. Jean-Jacques Dutko is taking space in Davies Street.

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection with a theft at the Masterpiece fair held in July at the Royal Hospital site in Chelsea.

The Metropolitan Police has appealed to readers of ATG to contact them if they are offered two Georgian porcelain cups and saucer sets stolen from Osterley Park House, London in July.

The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on the earliest known on-the-spot depiction of Niagara Falls which sold at Christie’s South Kensington earlier this year.

West Sussex auctioneers Bellmans enjoyed considerable success on August 5, with a single-owner collection of around 30 Indian and Tibetan bronzes collected by a private vendor in the 1960s.

A new fair at London’s Olympia venue aims to revitalise the market in antique dolls, teddy bears and toys by attracting a fresh generation of collectors.

Dealers, collectors and auctioneers of antique firearms are being invited to a meeting in London to discuss proposed changes to the law governing the sale and ownership of such weapons.

Quite possibly the largest sale of Derbyshire blue john ever held is going under the hammer at Fellows of Birmingham.

An impressive collection of pictures, studio pottery, furniture, personal effects and letters has been consigned to auctioneers Mitchells of Cockermouth from the estate of Mary Burkett, former director of Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal.

Sotheby’s share price dropped by over 8% earlier this month after the company posted some weaker-than-expected second quarter results.

Guillaume Cerutti, chief executive of Sotheby’s France and European deputy chairman, is to leave and join Christie’s as president for London, Continental Europe, the Middle East, Russia and India.

Two regional auctioneers – Halls of Shrewsbury and Bigwoods of Stratford-upon-Avon – are joining forces to conduct an ‘on-the-premises’ sale of art and antiques owned by the colourful publisher Felix Dennis (1947-2014).

A group of 32 ancient gold ornaments have been returned to China following claims they had been illegally removed.

The highlight of Chorley’s latest two-day sale at Prinknash Abbey was this unusual late 18th century Lombardy escritoire.

Showground fair organisers have reacted with disappointment to the news that exhibitors must pay 20% VAT on pitch rentals.

For many of the 40- and 50-somethings who trawl the internet for Star Wars toys, the ‘holy grail’ object is the Palitoy Death Star play set.

COMMENT: So we finally have a ruling from the VAT tribunal but it is not good news.