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The UK art and antiques trade is hastening its efforts to provide a sense of business as usual during unusual times after the UK government requested all ‘non-essential’ firms to close their premises to the public.

In this issue we feature 40 fabulous objects available to buy on dealers’ websites.

Objects relating to the rich history of Malta are perennial favourites at auction. This large early 18th century oil on canvas depicting a map of islands in the Maltese archipelago proved particularly popular in a sale of 15th to 19th century pictures held by Lempertz in Cologne.

The popular Chinese game of mah-jong is a relative newcomer.

An early coastal scene of Australia sold for more than five times its top estimate to an online buyer from New South Wales at Ewbank’s anniversary sale.

Sold at $60,000 (£46,295) in a recent New York sale was a broadside, Noticia Estraordinaria, printed in Mexico City in 1836, that brought news of the fall of the Alamo in March of that year.

Impressionistic pastoral landscapes, often featuring cattle, are the signature works of John Alfred Arnesby Brown (1866-1955).

A 19th century English painting of two prize cattle – a bull and a heifer in a field– was one of the top lots in the sale held by Bruneau in Cranston, Rhode Island, on March 14.

A very early railway guide, still in the original decorative boards, was a rare and unusual lot in a recent held by Mullock’s (20% buyer’s premium).

With the recent passing in Hong Kong of Tuyet Nguyet the oriental art world has lost one of its major personalities.

Peter Alexander Loughrey, founder of Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA), passed away on March 16, at the young age of 52, of cancer.