Bendor Grosvenor joins L&T board
Grosvenor, who now lives in Edinburgh, will join the board this month and will work alongside the auction firm’s senior management, managing director Gavin Strang and international director Lee Young.
Grosvenor, who previously worked with Philip Mould at his London gallery, has copresented arts programmes for the BBC including Britain’s Lost Masterpieces and Fake or Fortune?
Europol swoop on smuggling ring
A SUSPECTED art smuggling ring has been busted after Europol and police across 18 countries helped seize 3561 works of art and cultural goods.
The Operation Pandora swoop arrested 75 people in total with 500 stolen archaeological artefacts found in Murcia, Spain.
Antiquities dealer sues police chief
THE Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Bernard Hogan-Howe, has become embroiled in a legal dispute over an Assyrian antiquity.
The Daily Telegraph reported he is being sued by Lebanese dealer Halim Korban following the attempted sale of a fragmentary basalt stele at Bonhams in New Bond Street in April 2014.
Before the sale, police officers seized the stele, following claims it had been stolen.
Korban has now filed a claim to have the artefact returned and is claiming compensation.
Scotland Yard maintains the artefact is held legally as part of a criminal investigation.
Jail for Norman Cornish faker
A MAN from Sunderland who forged the work of Norman Cornish was jailed for three years last week. Richard Pearson, 56, had pleaded guilty to nine charges of fraud and two of forgery.
The court heard that Pearson had sold 14 works purporting to be by the ‘pitman painter’ to a gallery in Corbridge for a total of £52,500.
He also forged 1960s receipts from Cornish’s former dealer The Stone Gallery – although his use of decimal currency rather than pounds, shillings and pence eventually led to his detection. The forged material will now be destroyed.
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Ede fills gaps in museum’s treasure
ANTIQUITIES dealership Charles Ede has sold two ancient Egyptian fragments to National Museums Scotland.
The pieces were identified by Egyptologist Tom Hardwick as the missing fragments from a decorative wooden box made c.1400BC and owned by the museums for 160 years.
The 8¾in (22cm) high box dates to the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep II and is thought to have been used to store cosmetics or perfume in the royal palace. The London dealership sold the fragments to the museum for £25,000.
Lampley’s switch
SOTHEBY’S has appointed Brooke Lampley as vice chairman of its fine art division. She will join the company after 12 years at rival Christie’s.
It is thought she will take gardening leave this year before starting work in 2018.
At Christie’s her most recent role was US head of the Impressionist and Modern department. Her move to Sotheby’s follows former Christie’s Americas president Marc Porter joining Sotheby’s fine art division as chairman.
In Numbers
$51.2m
The running total from the Old Master auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York last week. One further sale was due to take place as ATG went to press.
