News topics

A John Constable (1776-1837) oil sketch drew prolonged competition at the latest auction held at Exeter saleroom Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood.

Lot number one in Rogers Jones’ latest sale provided both a world record result and a house record for the Welsh auctioneers.

The collection of medals awarded to Ernest Shackleton, the most decorated of the Polar explorers, excelled at a recent Christie’s South Kensington sale.

Stakeholders in the Italian art market will meet lawmakers this week in the hope of overturning legislation they say has hampered the country’s art market for a century.

Simon de Pury’s sale of the Lambert collection, trailed as a litmus test for high-end digital auctions, will now be conducted as a bricks and mortar event from the rostrum at King Street.

Bonhams have launched a new brand campaign centred on TV advertising. It is the first time that a major international auction house has advertised on TV.

This painting, found by John Nye of Bloomfield, New Jersey saleroom Nye & Company Auctions leaning up against a cellar wall, became one of the sleepers of the year on September 22.

Three years after Christie’s sold an earlier version for £20m, a second version of John Constable’s (1776-1837) The Lock is being offered at Sotheby’s Old Master & British Paintings Sale on December 9.

Stephan Ludwig and Ian Goldbart, creators of the group of businesses that includes Dreweatts, Baldwin’s and Mallett, are understood to have left parent company Stanley Gibbons.

The 1864 Ascot Cup, an impressive Victorian silver racing trophy by Garrard, led proceedings at the three-day sale of the Felix Dennis (1947-2014) collection. It sold at £67,000.

Sir Norman Rosenthal, one of the art world’s best known historians and curators, has described the trade side of the business as “a huge mechanism for preserving knowledge and value”.

A Grand Tour cork model of the Temple of Zeus at Paestum has sold for £44,000 at Hampstead Auctions in north London.

The charity behind the vision to revamp the ‘vintage market’ end of Portobello Road has amended its designs in the face of opposition to a key proposal.

An embossed brass belt buckle discovered in the back garden of an old English cottage is a reminder that the very first Australian side to tour England was one made up entirely of Aborigines.

Bimbo The Giant Clown was the beaming white face of Pelham Puppets for decades.

A new law giving online auction buyers additional consumer protection rights has been criticised for throwing dealers and auction houses into a legal grey area.

Timing is everything in sport and at auction. With New Zealand firm favourites to retain the Webb Ellis Cup on October 31, this is surely the moment to sell the jersey of a legendary All Black.

Two leading online bidding platforms with a combined monthly audience of more than 800,000 have forged a partnership targeting fine art auctioneers and buyers on both sides of the Atlantic.

Online auction house Auctionata have acquired the London-based online valuation company ValueMyStuff.

Fans of Lord Snooty and his Pals, Big Eggo, Morgyn the Mighty and dear Contrary Mary were drawn to the Comic Book Auctions sale of September 13 by the appearance of a good copy of the very first issue of the Beano.