UK

The United Kingdom accounts for more than one fifth of the global art market sales and is the second biggest art market after the US.

Through auctioneers, dealers, fairs and markets - and a burgeoning online sector - buyers, collectors and sellers of art and antiques can easily access a vibrant network of intermediaries and events around the country. The UK's museums also house a wealth of impressive collections

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Preiss is right ahead of ivory ban

05 August 2019

Under forthcoming UK ivory legislation, there will be no legitimate market for bronze and ivory Art Deco figures.

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Son of a slave paints saintly image

05 August 2019

While the vast majority of works at Old Master sales are by European artists, an unusual offering at Bonhams’ sale on July 3 was a Latin American work by a painter with Afro-Caribbean ancestry.

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Bottoms up in Hatfield

05 August 2019

Art in Clay Hatfield has been running for 25 years and is regarded as one of the most important ceramic and pottery festivals in Europe.

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Teniers ham dinner brings home the bacon

05 August 2019

Christie’s highest price for an Old Master this summer came in the stand-alone Masterpieces from a Rothschild Collection sale on July 4.

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Adventures in the saleroom with Enid Blyton books

05 August 2019

A copy of 'The Island of Adventure' offered in a Dominic Winter (20% buyer’s premium) sale of June 19-20 sold for £360 – just £10 short of the auction record set for a copy it had offered back in 2006.

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Music poster group makes major hit at auction

05 August 2019

A lot comprising 31 posters plugging top groups and festivals from 1969-72 was the major hit at Bellmans’ (22% buyer’s premium) Photographs, Posters and Prints sale.

British and Irish book auctions: August 5-17, 2019

05 August 2019

Our regular listings of British and Irish book auctions.

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Market for late 19th and early 20th century decorative arts is evolving – as are prices

05 August 2019

The market for European ‘decorative arts’ – the wealth of late 19th and early 20th century ceramics, metalwork and design – has been in a constant state of flux since it first entered mainstream collecting in the late 1960s. As tastes evolve, so does pricing.

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Penzance saleroom hosts first Cornish Asian auction

05 August 2019

Penzance auction house David Lay (18% buyer’s premium) is no stranger to the great Chinese boom but in July it staged Cornwall’s first dedicated Asian sale.

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Mirror images give snapshot of Paris style

05 August 2019

Original lithographs by Joan Miró and Marc Chagall star at Eames Fine Art’s exhibition 'Behind the Mirror'. Held at the Bermondsey galley from August 8-September 1, the show is named for the magazine, Derrière le Miroir, the leading modern art publication in 20th century Paris along with Verve.

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Textiles testament to the past on show from dealer's collection

05 August 2019

Patchworks stitched together by successive generations in poor Japanese communities offered in Kensington exhibition

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Robert Burns on song

05 August 2019

Shown below is a spread from a 120pp manuscript collection of Scottish songs with accompanying musical notation, on paper watermarked 1799, that sold at £600 in a Thomson Roddick (17.5% buyer’s premium) sale.

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Winnie-the-Pooh signed first edition sold in online auction

05 August 2019

Despite some minor loss to the head of 'When We Were Very Young', published in 1924 and a first edition of what are now collectively known as the ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ books, overall the set pictured below is an exceptionally well-preserved one.

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Organiser hands over the Bermondsey market reins

05 August 2019

It’s with a rather heavy heart that Mike Collins, director of specialist market operator Sherman & Waterman, has announced that he is giving up running the Friday antiques market at Bermondsey.

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Supply gain as London's Old Master series goes on the rise

05 August 2019

It may be a well-rehearsed refrain, but the Old Master market is much more subject to vagaries of supply than demand. Almost without fail, when high-quality fresh material is offered, bidders will come. Just getting it in the first place is the hard part.

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Galleries: latest moves and news including redevelopment at Abbott and Holder

05 August 2019

A round-up of news and moves from dealers and galleries.

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The web shop window: Chippendale-period partner’s desk

05 August 2019

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

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Call for fundraising to keep £10m Turner painting in the UK

02 August 2019

A JMW Turner landscape valued at £10m will be exported overseas unless funding can be raised to keep it in the UK.

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Appeal to trade for help to trace family heirlooms and antiques stolen from London garage

02 August 2019

A glove signed by boxer Muhammad Ali, a 2ft bronze Buddha, a 19th century silk Persian rug and a Persian limestone relief panel were among the items reported stolen in a burglary of a garage in Maida Vale, north London.

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Rare toby jug, King James Bible and a Chinese lacquer workbox – five auction highlights that caught bidders’ eyes in the last week

02 August 2019

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week includes a second edition of the King James Bible from c.1613 and a mid-19th century Chinese gilt and black lacquer workbox.

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