Front Page and News

Art and antiques trade associations have stepped up their campaign to “dilute the worst effects” of the incoming EU import licensing regulation which comes into force next summer.

A brooch by the great Victorian designer and architect William Burges, found with the help of the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow, has sold for £9500 at Leicestershire auction house Gildings.

“It had”, said the metal detectorist who found it, “been a wonderful Christmas present.”

Three over life-size Roman portrait busts with an 18th century provenance linked to Cobham Hall in Kent have sold for a combined £1.26m hammer at Lyon & Turnbull.

The only known example of a vintage Perone quart proved again how rare beer cans have become valuable collectors’ items

Christie’s posted the second-highest price at auction for LS Lowry (1887-1976) when Sunday Afternoon, one of his largest industrial landscapes, was knocked down at £5.2m. With buyer’s premium added, the price was £6.29m.

The highest auction price for Clarice Cliff for some years was posted on March 14 when an 18in (46cm) ribbed charger in the Applique Etna pattern sold for £18,500 (plus 26% buyer’s premium) at Fieldings.

An early watercolour by JMW Turner which had been hanging unidentified in the vendor’s dining room for over 30 years overshot a £20,000-30,000 estimate at Chef f ins in Cambridge, selling at £37,000.

A rare picture painted in India by Arthur William Devis (1762-1822) depicting a group of Bengali weavers was the subject of dramatic competition at Gorringe’s (25% buyer’s premium) spring fine art and antiques sale.

Second World War posters recruiting British and American women to the war effort are a familiar sight at auction.

Further high-ticket sales from this year’s TEFAF Maastricht have been announced.

A new boutique art fair launches in London this spring.

A group of portraits from the collection of the 3rd Earl of Liverpool, Charles Cecil Cope Jenkinson (1784-1851), will be offered at Gloucestershire saleroom Chorley’s next month.

A new record for African or Oceanic tribal art was set at Christie’s in Paris as part of the sale of the remarkable Barbier-Mueller collection.