Museums and Institutions

A MANUSCRIPTS dealer from Cheltenham has uncovered a major theft of letters from an American university. The case is now being investigated by the FBI.

THE Staffordshire Hoard has been saved for the nation – and a further £1.7m appeal has been launched to pay for its conservation, study and display.

BRYAN Goodall, owner of the Hambleton Group which includes toy auctioneers Vectis of Stockton-on-Tees, has invested £600,000 in ArtsBank, a new gallery and arts centre in nearby Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

MAJOR American museums played an active role as both buyers and sellers in the latest Old Master sales in New York.

THE V&A is to put on an exhibition of fakes curated by the Metropolitan Police Service's Art and Antiques Unit.

Furniture Futures is the first in a new series of biennial design symposia at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

WHILE £50m was finally raised in February to keep the Duke of Sutherland's Titian painting Diana and Actaeon in the UK, an attempt to raise a further £50m by 2012 for the Duke's Diana and Callisto is already underway.

Details have been released of the first UK tour of Artist Rooms, the collection of 725 post-War and contemporary works acquired by the nation from dealer Anthony d'Offay for £28m, a fraction of its market value.

THE Science Museum are to launch an online database of 2500 objects covering centuries of medical history from their collection. Brought to Life: Exploring the History of Medicine, goes online on March 2, primarily as a resource for GCSE students and undergraduates, but is also expected to be a useful research tool for antiques specialists.

A VOLUNTEER at the Royal Signals Regiment Museum in Blandford, Dorset, has been jailed for 12 months for stealing £33,000 of medals and selling them on eBay.

THE British Museum have credited the Treasure Act – which ensures treasure hunters are compensated for finds – for the significant increase in reported objects.

Liverpool World Museum’s Japanese holdings have been given a significant boost by the donation of 128 netsuke. The gift represents around half the collection of the late Jonas G Gadelius donated by his widow Gabita.

It was all smiles as ATG Editor-in-Chief Mark Bridge presented the awards to the prizewinners at the Asian Art In London champagne gala reception at the Victoria and Albert Museum on November 4.

The Tate announced a record year for acquisitions in their 2007/8 Annual Report. The Tate Collection aquired 494 works, valued at £63.1m, of which 320 were gifts and bequests from collectors and artists.

The British Library has secured the oldest surviving roll of arms in English history after a successful fundraising effort to keep it in the UK. The Dering Roll dates from the last quarter of the 13th century and depicts 324 coats of arms, approximately a quarter of the English baronage during the time of Edward I, making it a vital record for the study of heraldry in medieval England.

Maurice Collins and the British Library are to hold a display of Weird and Wonderful Inventions and Gadgets, eccentric and ingenious contraptions produced between 1851 and 1951.

LORD Ashcroft’s Victoria Cross collection – the largest in the world – is to go on public display following his £5m donation to the Imperial War Museum. The news comes as the museum has also received a donation from the Art Fund to purchase an important watercolur by Keith Vaughan (1912-1977) at auction.

AN historic and important medieval scientific instrument, known as the Canterbury Quadrant, has been saved for the nation. St James’s specialist dealers Trevor Philip and Sons have sold the quadrant to the British Museum for £411,250.

This year's annual Royal College Art graduate summer exhibition, entitled Show RCA, includes the work of over 400 contemporary art and design students, most of which will be for sale or available for commission.

The Louvre have secured the return of a French Crown Jewel after 121 years, through a private sale with Christie’s New York.