News

ALFRED Taubman, who has just announced an appeal against his collusion conviction, has started the ball rolling in his bid to sell his controlling stake in Sotheby’s.

THE value of the UK’s international trade in art and antiques rose for the fifth year running during 2001. Total exports were down by 4.75 per cent to £1884m, but this was more than matched by a 13.5 per cent rise in total imports which were valued at £1623m.

MAJOR players from the English and Continental clock trade travelled to Dublin on May 1 for the sale of this important and rare 19th century ormolu-cased French automaton clock, right, at O’Reilly’s (15% buyer’s premium).

A BONUS of the bona fide house clearance is the family rug – usually in a dishevelled condition but market-fresh, which surprises auctioneer and local trade alike by taking the top price of a sale from a mysterious overseas buyer.

TILES: Tiles seem to be the new hot collecting area in British decorative ceramics. Following on from a sellout exhibition at Richard Dennis’s shop in Kensington last year, Bonhams held a sale of ceramic design in January that featured a large collection of De Morgan tiles which were pursued by a determined band of private collectors to prices that rivalled those of the pottery’s striking hollowwares.

The smallest (but not the smallest grossing sale) in the London rooms last month was the 115-lot, £581,000 gathering of 20th century Decorative Arts offered by Christie’s King Street on May 15.

Tension in the East and distrust in the West have combined to force up gold prices.The steady increase in the value of gold over the past two weeks is due to “a combination of factors,” according to jeweller and precious metals dealer Michael Bloomstein.