2018

From wine and whisky to handbags and Hermés scarves, luxury auctions can be a chance to indulge in something extra special – sometimes at affordable prices. A series of sales across the UK this month look likely to have buyers bidding on choice pieces, with a few a little out of the ordinary.

The most popular stories on this website over the last week included news of street artist Banksy’s prank on the art market with a work shredding itself immediately after selling at Sotheby’s.

The Kensington Antiques Fair has been cancelled just days before it was due to open at Kensington Town Hall.

The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture was sold at Sworders auction yesterday for £236,000.

If eyes really are the windows into the soul then two photographs taken nearly 120 years apart give the viewer plenty to ponder.

ATG’s selection of highlights sold at auctions last week, including a rare 18th century left-handed cricket bat and photographs of a fairy hoax that famously duped Arthur Conan Doyle.

Red House Antiques Centre in York was the victim of an audacious ‘Mission Impossible’ style burglary.

Derbyshire auction house Hansons is selling the complete contents of a Staffordshire manor house next week. Bishton Hall, at Wolseley Bridge, near Stafford, was built and has been home to the Stafford Northcote family and Saint Bede’s Prep School since 1946.

Anyone who counts diamonds among their best friends has plenty to keep them busy this month.

From studio pottery in Macclesfield to jewellery in Birmingham, here are five previews from upcoming sales this week.

A rare poster advertising the return journey of the Titanic is up for auction in Wiltshire.

Street artist Banksy managed to prank the art market by booby trapping his ‘Girl with Balloon’ picture that sold at auction for £1.04m at Sotheby’s last night.

Workers charged with the demolition of the former Cressoni Theater in Como, Lombardy have unearthed a hoard of 5th century Roman gold coins.

Sotheby’s has described a claim filed in New York that it conspired to defraud the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev as “entirely without merit”.

From rare books to vintage furniture to contemporary painting, here’s a look at some of the best placed to buy art and antiques around Dublin (and beyond) this month.

If you enjoy ‘spot the difference’ competitions, a pair of British travel posters coming up at auction in the US will be of immediate interest.

Rising figures in both sales and attendance marked the 11th edition of last month’s Tribal Art London, the UK fair that precedes the annual clutch of tribal art events across the Channel in Paris.