Front Page and News

The surprise decision by Sotheby’s to cut its buyer’s premium and standardise its vendor fees sparked a wave of comments across the art and antiques trade.

A temporary export block has been placed on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Polar Medal in the hope a buyer in the UK can pay £1.7m.

A successful run at NEC Birmingham last year for Classic Antique Fairs has encouraged it to expand this year.

In a move that will be watched closely by US and European auction houses, Morphy Auctions of Denver, Pennsylvania, has launched a new operation in Zwingen, Switzerland.

More than 470 costumes and props from Netflix’s The Crown series were auctioned by Bonhams, taking a hammer price total of £1.3m in a white-glove sale.

The extraordinary collection of the Bath dealer-collector George Withers (1946-2023) comes for sale across three days and two salerooms this month.

Sir Winston Churchill’s false teeth have been snapped up for a hammer price of £18,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) after a nail-biting bidding battle attracted would-be buyers from the UK and US.

Sotheby’s has announced a major shake-up of its customers’ fees, reducing its buyer’s premium for the first time since it was introduced in 1979 and setting sellers’ commission at a standard rate. The new charges will come into effect in May.

A famille rose porcelain moon flask, possibly made at the imperial kilns for the Qing emperor Jiaqing, took more than 75-times estimate at auction.

A new auction record for an English silver coin was set during the New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC).

Two recent art market discoveries, both self-portraits by titans of 17th century British art, met contrasting fortunes in New York.

Winston Churchill’s desk which he used to write his Second World War memoirs has been sold by Peter Harrington Rare Books at The Winter Show in New York (January 19-28).