Battersea Dec ready for autumn return
The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair is returning to its home in Battersea Park in south London this autumn.
The new dates will be September 28-October 3.
The event, previously held three times a year, had to postpone and cancel planned fairs due to the various lockdowns during the pandemic and instead held virtual events and auctions.
More than 150 exhibitors will take part in the autumn fair and tickets will be released shortly.
Hansons jewellery expert promoted
Helen Smith of Hansons.
Jewellery specialist Helen Smith has been promoted to associate director at Hansons Auctioneers. She joined in 2016, becoming head of jewellery in 2019. Smith was previously a designer goldsmith in the retail industry.
Munich Highlights fair postponed
The 12th edition of Munich art and antiques fair Highlights, which was due to take place from July 1-4, has been postponed until October 19-24.
Even though the Covid-19 incidence in Munich is at a level that allows museums, galleries and restaurants to open and even permits a limited number of visitors to the football stadium, the Kreisverwaltungsreferat, the local authority responsible for licensing public events, has denied the organisers of the fair permission for it to go ahead.
Juana Schwan, the fair’s manager, regretted that the local authorities had “prevented the chance of an early cultural and economic revival, by refusing their permission”.
Several of the exhibitors also pointed out that last year’s Highlights had been held in October with a well-thought-out hygiene plan and without negative consequence for exhibitors and visitors alike.
Book covers lost and stolen art tales
Prof Anja Shortland of King’s College London has written a book on lost and stolen art.
Case studies of lost and stolen art have been turned into a book by a professor at King’s College London.
Prof Anja Shortland, who specialises in the economics of crime, has compiled Lost Art: The Art Loss Register Casebook Volume 1. The book is based on 10 cases from the ALR’s archive, showing how restitutions were negotiated, how objects were retrieved and how “thieves and fences end up in court and behind bars”.
The book has been published by Unicorn.
Bonhams makes appointments
Phyllis Kao has joined Bonhams in New York.
In New York Bonhams has hired Phyllis Kao as US director of business development. Prior to this role Kao was a specialist in the Chinese Works of Art department at Sotheby’s New York.
Separately, Bonhams has made two senior appointments in Asia. Marcello Kwan has become head of Modern and Contemporary art in Asia and Cindy Lim has joined as a senior specialist and head of sale. Both roles are based in Hong Kong. Kwan was previously at Christie’s in Hong Kong.
Money Museum to sell coins on eBay
The Money Museum, operated by the American Numismatic Association, plans to sell a selection of coins via eBay. The items offered will be low-value specimens that are already represented in its collection. The deaccessioning is to clear space for future objects and the funds will help the museum grow.
Most read
The most viewed stories for week June 3-9 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 ‘Elegy’ from 1836 reveals original John Constable watercolours
2 Five pictures that caught bidders’ eyes at Dreweatts’ Old Master sale
3 Reward offered for return of stolen treasures from Arundel Castle
4 Ming dish sets house record in Copenhagen auction
5 Victoria Cross awarded for heroic defensive feat ‘ranking alongside Rorke’s Drift’ comes for sale
In Numbers
A gold medal proclaiming Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
Sfr260,000
The price (£205,400) of a gold medal proclaiming Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England – the only known example in private hands – which sold in a Swiss auction. It was estimated to bring SFr75,000 at Lugdunum in Solothurn on June 9 (see News, ATG No 2494, for more). The Supremacy medal was struck in 1545, a decade after the formal completion of ‘the king’s great matter’ – his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the break with Rome.
