News

AFTER years of TV programmes that have approached antiques using the controversial gameshow format, we finally have a proper champion in the shape of Kirstie Allsopp – and it’s not even an antiques show.

It could be less than a month until the date is named when antiquities dealer Malcolm Hay will be extradited to serve a four-year jail sentence in Greece – on the strength of no credible evidence.

HELPED by the boom in Chinese works of art, UK regional salerooms continue to rewrite the record books. Following the £43m vase at Bainbridges of Ruislip, Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis posted two more seven-figure sums for jades.

DEALERS are being warned that they could be targeted by credit card fraud after a noticeable increase in cloned American Express cards.

SOTHEBY’S set a new auction record for a jewel in Geneva when a 24.78-carat fancy intense pink diamond sold to London jeweller Laurence Graff at SFr40.5m (£25.6m) plus premium.

JEFFERYS Auctions of Lostwithiel, Cornwall, one of the worst hit towns in the recent flooding, are to go ahead with their forthcoming antiques sale as planned.

THE unexpected highlight of a recent sale conducted by Surrey auctioneers Lawrences of Bletchingley was this Anglo-Indian rosewood and ivory inlaid butterfly form jewellery box entered for sale from a local private source.