BADA Week will run November 13-17 this year.
BADA Arts Prize judges revealed
Sculptor Anish Kapoor, musician and collector Jools Holland and Scottish sculptor Philip Jackson have joined the judging panel for the third annual BADA (British Antique Dealers’ Association) Arts Prize 2023.
They accompany Alain Dominique Perrin, founder and president of the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art and president of the Jeu de Paume Museum, who has been a judge since the start.
Launched in 2021 by BADA, the annual competition seeks to promote “the antiques of tomorrow” by awarding a £1000 grant to an emerging contemporary artist.
The winner will be announced at the BADA Week champagne reception in St James’s, London, on November 17.
Billstrom becomes head of design
Otto Billstrom has been promoted to head of design at Sworders.
Otto Billstrom has been promoted to head of design at Sworders having joined the auction house in 2021.
Billstrom grew up in Stockholm and has a background in Scandinavian design. He previously worked at Stockholms Auktionsverk and with dealer Augustus Brandt in Petworth.
Sotheby’s to stage two collection sales
Sotheby’s has announced two new collections coming to market this autumn.
The auction house has won the coveted collection of the late art collector and patron Emily Fisher Landau, who died in March aged 102. The star lot is Femme à la montre (Woman With a Watch), a 1932 portrait by Pablo Picasso of his young lover Marie-Therese Walter which is estimated to sell “in excess of $120m”.
The auction will take place in November in New York.
Sotheby’s also announced the sale of The Edith & Stuart Cary Welch collection in London on October 25. This includes Indian miniatures, Chinese and Japanese art as well as silver and a painting by Howard Hodgkin.
It will be offered during Sotheby’s Arts of the Islamic World & India sale which also includes a 9th century astrolabe guided at £1.5m-2.5m.
It’s time for Holroyd to be promoted
Fellows head of watches Kain Holroyd.
Fellows has promoted Kain Holroyd to head of watches. Holroyd joined Fellows in 2016 in its logistics department.
He progressed to train as a watch cataloguer undertaking valuations and working with clients in both Fellows’ Birmingham and Mayfair offices.
Mullock’s shifts to Mullock Jones
Shropshire saleroom Mullock’s Auctions, specialising in sporting memorabilia and collectables, has changed its name to Mullock Jones. Owner Ben Jones began running the firm in 2020, taking over from John Mullock who founded the auction house in 1996.
Spink launches film poster auctions
Spink is to hold its inaugural film poster auction in London on October 25. The sale will feature 100 lots of original posters, lobby cards and photographic production stills.
Comb for a famous Freddie moustache
Tiffany & Co silver moustache comb owned by Freddie Mercury, £120,000 at Sotheby’s.
After six sales, the final total from the sale of 1400 items of Freddie Mercury’s personal possessions at Sotheby’s was £40m including fees. The overall estimate was £7.6m-11.3m.
Sotheby’s reported bidders came from 76 countries, as well as buyers from 50 countries, with over 85% of participants new to the firm.
As mentioned in ATG No 2609, lot after lot drew dramatic competition at the evening sale on September 6 and this was followed by similar reaction at the two further day sales and three online auctions. Among the objects that caught the imagination at the Crazy Little Things, part II online sale that closed on September 13 was Mercury’s Tiffany & Co silver moustache comb. Dating from the second half of the 20th century, it came with its original cloth pouch. Estimated at £400-600, it sold at £120,000 (£152,400 including premium).
A report on prints from the Mercury collection will appear in next week’s Art Market.
Most read
The most clicked-on stories for week September 14-20 on antiquestradegazette.com
1 Stolen Martinware bird returned to museum after 15 years
2 Charles III coronation chairs consigned to Christie’s
3 New Zealand birds soar to a new taxidermy high
4 Fake or Fortune? to return to TV screens this autumn
5 A sedan chair from the largest known private collection is among five lots to watch
In Numbers
3
The number of dealers now sharing a space in St James’s. Freya Mitton has taken her first premises in London – joining Harry Moore-Gwyn and Guy Peppiatt who already operate from 6 Masons Yard.
