London MD for Fine Art Society
Rowena Morgan-Cox has re-joined The Fine Art Society as managing director of its London operation. Previously at the dealership between 2012- 17, she left to set up art and design store 8 Holland Street in Kensington.
The Fine Art Society, which runs a gallery in Dundas Street, Edinburgh, closed its Bond Street gallery after 142 years in February 2018 and traded by appointment only from offices in London.
Emily Walsh who has been in the Edinburgh gallery for 22 years, managing it for the last 15 after it became part of The Fine Art Society, now takes the position of group managing director.
Morgan-Cox said: “We are excited about the possibilities that come with a fresh start.”
Pippa Stockdale, who joined the company in 2015 from Bonhams, has left the firm.
Detector find brings £16,000
A rare Roman Solidus, found by a metal detectorist in a field in Somerset, was hammered down at £16,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at Dix Noonan Webb in London on September 17.
The coin, minted early in the reign of Constantine I, sold to dealer Hadrien Rambach on behalf of a collector.
Recorded with The Portable Antiquities Scheme, it had been dug up in a field at Wanstrow in Somerset close to a Roman road once used for transporting mined lead ore. Both the finder and the landowner were in the room to watch it sell.
Nigel Mills, DNW’s antiquities specialist, said: “The coin was a magnificent example of a gold Solidus minted in 313-5 at Trier, the capital of Gaul. This was a new denomination introduced by Constantine in 310.” On the reverse is a rare portrayal of Constantine commemorating his great victory over Maxentius in 312.
Antiquity returned to Munich museum
A Hellenistic marble stele that was received as a wedding present in the 1950s has been returned to a museum in Germany after an investigation by antiquities dealers and an Oxford scholar.
This 16½ x 16in (42 x 41cm) Hellenistic marble relief from Erythrai c.2nd century BC, will go on show at a Germany museum in 2020.
The second century BC marble relief had been given by an English diplomat living in Munich to a German scholar and his English wife when they married in 1958.
The state at the time said it had no claim on it. However, after recent discussions with Dr Georgy Kantor of St John’s College, Oxford and London antiquities dealers Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch, the artefact was traced to that belonging to a museum in Munich in the late 19th century.
Following this discovery the widow of the couple, now living in England, agreed it should be returned. It will go on show at the Staatliche Antikensam-mlungen und Glyptothek when it reopens in 2020.
The stele is from Erythrai, one of the Ionian cities in Asia Minor, and was discovered there between 1852-57.
Christie’s to sell Hoare collection
The collection of Islamic art’s ‘most influential’ dealer, the late Oliver Hoare, is to be offered at auction.
Hoare (1945-2018) was a leading Islamic and Asian art dealer and organised the first Islamic art auction at Christie’s in 1975. He assembled works of art for his regular exhibitions under the banner ‘Every Object Tells a Story’.
Now Christie’s will offer 130 lots of works of art from his collection on October 25 in London. With estimates from £300-£1.5m, the sale includes pieces from all over the globe such as 15th century Timurid manuscript which is pitched at £1m-1.5m.
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2 ‘Stolen’ Joshua Reynolds portrait at centre of controversy between UK family and Japanese museum
3 Two collections from celebrated interior designers to be offered at Bonhams
4 Christie’s launches young collectors club to attract new buyers to the art world
5 Fabergé sedan chair sets house record for Cirencester firm
In Numbers
£60m
The value of objects brought into UK public ownership in 2018/19 through the Cultural Gifts Scheme (donating objects in return for a tax reduction) and Acceptance in Lieu (offering objects to pay an inheritance tax or estate duty liability).
