Organisations

The Antiquarian Book Dealers Association have sent out a warning to dealers to be alert to a credit card scam that has already claimed more than $100,000 worth of items from the trade.

eBay have reported a record $266.3m turnover for the second quarter of the year ending June 30, a 47 per cent increase on the same period last year. Of this, $235.3m came from online transactions.

USA: Next week in an extraordinary single-lot auction – and the first joint sale between Sotheby’s.com and eBay, this 1933 Double Eagle $20 gold coin is to be offered for sale by Sotheby’s and New York coin auctioneer Stack’s on behalf of the US government.

EBAY have struck a $1.5bn deal that will give them control of PayPal, the leading online payment service, by the end of the year.

The UK trade have their man at the helm of CINOA, the international federation of antique dealers associations, for the first time in 13 years. Henry Neville, chairman of Mallett, was elected president at the annual general assembly in Dublin at the end of June.

Bradbury’s Book of Hallmarks, revised edition 2002, published by the Sheffield Assay Office, Guardians Hall, 137 Portobello Road, Sheffield Sl 4DS. Tel: 0114 275 5111 Hardback £16 ISBN l872212026. Paperback ISBN 1872212034 £5.50

Helped by a £17.425m grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund – the largest sum it has ever given – the National Trust announced last week that it had bought Tyntesfield, a Victorian neo-gothic country house near Bristol.

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Sir Nicholas Goodison, chairman of the National Art Collections Fund (the Art Fund) since 1986, is to step down from the post at the end of the year.

Yahoo will close five of its auction sites in Europe and instead promote eBay’s competing auctions as part of an agreement the companies announced on last week.

eBay sellers dealing in collectables are getting lower prices and having fewer successful auctions than a year ago, according to a study by AuctionBytes.com. The results were similar to those found in a separate analysis by TIAS.com.

The Portable Antiquities Scheme, which improves the chances of archaeological objects found by members of the public being recorded properly, has secured ongoing funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

THE National Art Collections Fund has announced that it is tightening its rules on grant giving in a bid to prevent museums from inadvertently acquiring stolen art.

Oriental art dealer Christian Deydier has been voted in as the new president of the France’s Syndicat National des Antiquaires (National Dealers’ Association) in Paris, defeating book dealer Claude Blaizot by 10 votes to 6. Outgoing president Dominique Chevalier, recently injured in a motorcycle accident, did not stand for re-election.

THE Dutch Ambassador welcomed British and Dutch dealers to a reception at the London embassy on April 24 to celebrate the signing of a formal agreement between two leading trade associations.

PRESSURE from the British Art Market Federation has persuaded the Government to relax Import VAT rules on art that are thought to have damaged legitimate trade.

Auctioneers’ society aims to extend its influence and admit valuers as members: THE Society of Fine Art Auctioneers, concerned over the RICS decision to derecognise the Southampton Institute training courses for the trade, is to vote on approving them itself.

EUROPE’s leading showground events organisers DMG Antiques Fairs have been oiling the wheels of their fixtures, and it is much appreciated at Ardingly where their fair has been going from strength to strength.

The British Antique Dealers’ Association’s annual survey of its 388 members shows that, despite economic jitters, their aggregate turnover rose from £727m in 2000 to an estimated £782m last year.

The Fine Art Valuation degree course at Southampton Institute has lost almost half its teaching staff in the past year with the student intake dropping 60 per cent since 1998.