News

Belgian rooms content but no more with 2003 performance: 2003 was a “slightly up-and-down year” for Horta of Brussels, according to firm director Jean-Pierre Julien, but he was satisfied with a four per cent increase in sales from 2002, making it Horta’s most lucrative year since they were founded in 1982.

Local trade fare particularly well at Powderham: TWO weeks ago, when Sue Ede of Cooper Antiques Fairs promised her new West Country Antiques Fair at Powderham Castle, near Exeter, would be “an antiques event of a quality not seen before in the West Country”, I must admit I thought that a very bold claim indeed.

Cheffins of Cambridge are celebrating what must rank as one of the most dramatic – and certainly one of the highest – prices ever recorded in the UK provinces after their February 11-12 sale that included a pair of white marble seated figures by Sir Henry Cheere (1703-81).

Total turnover at UK picture and sculpture sales in 2003 was down 10 per cent on the previous year, according to figures just published by Art Sales Index. This reflects the similar contraction in the international market during the 2002-2003 season announced by ASI in the autumn.

THE new money laundering regulations come into force next month, creating new legal requirements for auctioneers and dealers who wish to accept large cash payments from their clients.

Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire, situated just 14 miles from Central London, has been the home of the Byng family for over 250 years but it is best known to a wider public for the starring role it played as the face of Gosford Park, the stately home in the eponymous Robert Altman film that brilliantly analyses the life of a country house above and below stairs.

ISLAMIC ART: A MAJOR donation hase been given to the Victoria and Albert Museum, to enable it to completely refurbish its Islamic Gallery, home to the famous Ardabil carpet and many other treasures from the Middle East.