Latest News Articles by Anne Crane
Hidden attractions help cupboard to £60,000
07 October 2016Livery cupboards are a pretty rare species in the oak lexicon but what makes the example shown here particularly unusual is its early date combined with the presence of drawers.
Tintin, Astérix and The Smurfs – Comic-strip artwork on show in London prior to Paris auction
04 October 2016Comic-strip art is a hugely popular auction category in France where it goes under the name of ‘Bande Dessinée’ and many specialist sales are staged.
Picasso on tour – Swedish auction house bring Neuman collection to London
03 October 2016Swedish auction house Uppsala Auctionskammare are exhibiting a single-owner collection in London that includes half-a-dozen works by Picasso.
Monet sails into Hong Kong at upcoming Fine Art Asia fair
30 September 2016Fine Art Asia, the international fine art and antiques fair in Hong Kong, will open its doors with an invitation-only preview on October 1.
Versailles takes its pick and buys picture of the château orangerie
28 September 2016The Château of Versailles exercised its right of pre-emption to acquire an 18th century painting of its orangerie that was offered at auction.
Eiffel Tower girder among lots up for auction at Drouot
24 September 2016Fancy owning a piece of the Eiffel Tower, the ceiling from a Parisian boulangerie or butcher’s shop or an old seat from the Metro?
Cabinet with royal provenance goes west to the Getty
21 September 2016Not many cabinets can have been owned by a pope and a king but a piece of furniture bought by the J Paul Getty Museum at Sotheby’s Paris can make that proud claim.
Drouot affair “belongs in the past", says French auctioneer body
09 September 2016The sentencing of former porters and auctioneers in Paris this week for the organised theft of thousands of artworks means the affair “belongs in the past”, the head of France’s auctioneering body told ATG.
Hold on to your hat: Paris' annual Parcours des Mondes gets off to a good start
09 September 2016The Parcours des Mondes, Paris' annual tribal trail and one of the biggest commercial gatherings in this collecting area, opened on September 6.
Cécile Bernard appointed managing director of Sotheby’s France
05 September 2016Sotheby’s have announced the appointment of Cécile Bernard as managing director of Sotheby’s France.
Export bar for Queen Victoria’s coronet sold by London dealer
30 August 2016A temporary export bar has been placed on the coronet designed for Queen Victoria by her husband Prince Albert, giving UK buyers an opportunity to raise the £5m (plus £1m VAT) asking price to keep it in the country.
Just Like That! V&A acquires Tommy Cooper collection
29 August 2016With his trademark fez and deceptively shambolic stage persona, Tommy Cooper was one of Britain’s best known TV personalities. Now the Victoria & Albert Museum is acknowledging his fame and popularity with the announcement that they have acquired the comedian’s memorabilia collection.
Malmo decorative fair – ‘a trade secret amongst Swedish dealers’
19 August 2016The annual Malmo Decorative Antiques Fair (Malmo Dekorativa) takes place at the end of this month at Katrinetorp, a pretty manor house and garden oasis around 10 minutes from the city centre and within easy distance of the airport.
Italian cabinets from Castle Howard head to Fitzwilliam Museum
12 August 2016An impressive and richly decorated pair of early 17th century gilt bronze and pietre dura inlaid Italian cabinets, which stood in Castle Howard, Yorkshire for two and a half centuries, have been saved for the Nation by the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
Charles Lindbergh’s record-breaking flying helmet to be offered at Paris auction
10 August 2016Charles Lindbergh’s flying helmet which the American aviator wore on his record-breaking solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 is to be offered for sale in Paris this autumn.
Tribal art and classic cars boost French auctioneers
13 July 2016Auction houses in France have announced their first half-year sales figures.
King of the saleroom – medieval chess piece sells at £540,000
08 July 2016A medieval chess piece produced one of the most exciting moments in Sotheby’s Treasures auction in London.
Japanese woodblock wonder sets record in Paris auction
30 June 2016Crowning the white-glove success of Japanese works from the Portier collection in Paris was the sale of this signature portrait print by Kitagawa Utamaro for €600,000 (£500,000).
Vaizey places export bar for Florentine pietre dure table top
27 June 2016Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on a 17th century Florentine pietre dure table top. It was sold in December at Sotheby’s in London for £3m.
Louvre buys duc de Berry’s tomb mourners at Paris auction
24 June 2016Two finely carved marble figures of mourners from the tomb of Jean de France, the duc de Berry (1340-1416) brother of King Charles V of France were secured by the Louvre for €4.4m (£3.67m) at Christie’s Paris last week.