London

THE petition to persuade the Government to ease business rates in support of the art and antiques industry is gathering momentum.

HE had received only a basic education and spoke only Dutch, but Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is today recognised as the greatest of the pioneering microscopists of the 17th century.

A HOARD of James I gold unites, found in the wall of an Oxfordshire cellar 30 years ago, is expected to sell for £50,000 at London specialist auctioneers Morton & Eden on June 9-10.

DEALERS at Antiquarius have been left looking for a new home after the final death knells were sounded for the King’s Road antiques centre last week.

CHRISTIE’S have confirmed that their Antiquities department at South Kensington will continue as before, with sales in April and October.

LONDON Sculpture Week, which was scheduled for June 12 to 19, has been suspended due to lack of sponsorship.

KENSINGTON and Chelsea council are holding a public planning meeting on Tuesday to consider the application to turn the King’s Road antiques centre Antiquarius into a branch of the American clothing chain Anthropologie.

Dr William Lindsay Gordon, a Birmingham GP who died last year, had a fascination for English history especially the Stuart era.

THIS carved ivory icon of a warrior saint sparked a ferocious bidding contest when it appeared at Hampstead Auctions' sale on March 26.

THE UK government has acceded to European Union rules which would see the extradition of suspects like antiquities dealer Malcolm Hay.

A LOAN exhibition of 20 works from the collection of American billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen opens at Sotheby’s in New York this week.

Just hours before Sotheby’s sold the contents of Gianni Versace’s Lake Como villa on March 18, they withdrew an 18th century portrait by Johann Zoffany after its subject’s family claimed that it had been stolen from their home in London 30 years ago.

In a final bid to block the sale of two €28m (£25.4m) imperial bronzes, a Chinese collector revealed himself as the winning bidder and said he had no intention of paying for them.

ANY remaining hope that The Mall in Camden Passage might remain as an antiques centre has vanished after a government inspectorate ruled in favour of the landlord’s redevelopment proposals.

TWENTY of London's top art dealers have joined forces with the auction houses to launch Master Paintings Week in London this summer.

THE owners of Antiquarius have submitted their plans to the council to turn the West London antiques centre into American fashion chain store.

Prisoner-of-war work is the name given to intricately crafted small objects created from carved bone or wood and straw marquetry by captured French prisoners languishing in the hulks and other jails during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

THE flagship art sales in London saw a good take up last week after estimates were cut by as much as 40 per cent from their boom levels.

BOND Street dealership Mallett have replaced chief executive Lanto Synge in the wake of the company’s weakening performance and rising costs.

MEMENTOS of the notorious Kray Twins amassed while they served life sentences in Parkhurst and Broadmoor were offered in some 160 lots at Chiswick Auctions on the evening of January 26.