News in brief – including a new marketplace guide for dealers

Ronati has partnered with LAPADA.

16 May 2022

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Online guide from Ronati and LAPADA

Ronati, an art and antiques technology supplier, has partnered with LAPADA on its 2022 marketplace guide detailing the leading online portals for dealers.

The guide features 32 marketplaces from 1stDibs and Lorfords to Facebook and eBay. A table lists the focus, set-up cost, fee structure and commission. Each also receives its own page with descriptions of ‘What Sells’ and the buyers that visit the sites.

In the catalogue introduction Freya Simms, chief executive of LAPADA, writes that “dealers have shifted their priorities to bolster their online presence to reach new markets”. She adds: “Our partnership with Ronati offers members invaluable support and could not come at a more valuable time for dealers.”

Sotheby’s brings back Aboriginal art

A parrying shield from 1897 by William Barak (1824-1903), estimated at $15,000-25,000 at Sotheby’s.

For the first time in more than two years Sotheby’s is holding a live auction of Australian Aboriginal art in New York.

Featuring more than 100 lots by artists including William Barak, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Ronnie Tjampit ji npa, Wi l ly Tjungurrayi and Mick Namarari, the auction will take place on May 25, following Sotheby’s spring sales of Contemporary and Modern art.

Jewellery event speakers revealed

The National Association of Jewellers’ Institute of Registered Valuers (IRV) has announced the keynote speakers for its upcoming conference this summer.

Across the weekend, 39 guest speakers will present over 35 workshops and masterclasses. Among the speakers are Bonhams’ UK jewellery director Emily Barber and senior specialist Kate Flitcroft; Hanne Faurby, project curator of the Fabergé in London: Romance to Revolution exhibition at the V&A; and jewellery historian and curator Rachel Church.

The NAJ Summit runs from June 10-12 and is accompanied by a welcome BBQ on the evening of Friday, June 10, and a three-course dinner on Saturday, June 11. The event takes place at Staverton Park Hotel in Daventry.

Details of the event and booking can be found at naj.co.uk/summit-2022

Grenyer joins W&W furniture team

Neil Grenyer has joined Woolley & Wallis.

Woolley & Wallis has hired Neil Grenyer as a valuer and cataloguer for its furniture department.

He joins the team with 27 years’ experience, having started at Bonhams in 1995 after graduating from Southampton Institute with a degree in fine art valuation. He was most recently on the board of directors at Lawrences in Crewkerne, overseeing the furniture and ceramics departments.

Nostradamus work returns to Rome

A manuscript by French astrologer Michel de Nostredame (Nostradamus) has been returned to its home in Rome after it was stolen in 2007.

The manuscript had been stored in the Church of San Carlo ai Catinari in the Italian city which is the Centro Studi Storici dei Padri Barnabiti (the historical studies centre of the Barnabite fathers of Rome).

After the 500-page manuscript was stolen it is believed to have been sold at a flea market in Paris and an auction house in Germany where it was offered for €12,000 (£10,200).

According to The Guardian, in April last year investigators from Italy’s cultural heritage protection squad came across the book on the auction house’s website and identified it as originating from the library in Rome via a stamp dated 1991 on one of the pages.

Rome’s public prosecutor contacted his counterpart in Germany and it was eventually returned.

Surrey antiques centre break-in

Among the missing items from the Antiques Warehouse is this set of six silver apostle spoons marked for London 1895 by William Hutton.

A Farnham antiques centre is hoping to track down items stolen after a break-in.

The Antiques Warehouse on St George’s Road in Surrey is housed within Elizabethan barns and has been run by the same family for the past 27 years. The family owners of the 3000 sq ft centre sell their own items plus stock from other traders.

The theft took place in the early hours of May 5 and a large quantity of silver and jewellery was taken. Anyone with information should contact Surrey Police by calling 101 quoting crime reference number 452200447288 or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

In Numbers

4000

The number of bottles consigned from the personal wine cellars of Prince Robert of Luxembourg. Offered for sale at Sotheby’s New York on May 21 with proceeds going to benefit a health charity, the collection is expected to raise in excess of $2.8m.