ATG chooses a diverse selection of must-see pieces for the Maastricht connoisseur and buyer

THE Antiquities Dealers’ Association has asked the government to “produce satisfactory guidance” after a bill designed to tackle the looting and destruction of cultural heritage in conflict zones passed without amendments called for by the art and antiques trade.

THIS Japanese lacquer coffer from the Momoyama or early Edo period (1590-1625) was sold by Charterhouse of Sherborne on February 17 for £55,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium).

Estimated at £50-100, this Maori flute sold for £140,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at John Nicholson’s of Haslemere on February 23.

As attribution issues continue to beset the art market, TEFAF’s vetters are placed under the spotlight as much as the objects they assess. Roland Arkell speaks to current chairman of vetting, Henk van Os

BUCKING the trend in a challenging marketplace for Victorian ceramics, two enthusiasts have launched a new business dealing in Staffordshire figures.

EN ROUTE to the recycling centre, the owner of this Victorian armchair called in at his local saleroom to ask if it might be worth saving from the skip. He was told by Andrew Smith of Itchen Stoke, near Winchester, that the chair, in store for some years, might bring £80-120. It was consigned for sale on February 7.

THE appeal of this 5 x 7in (13 x 17cm) watercolour lies not in its technical skill but in its subject matter and the name of the amateur artist: the explorer Sir George Back (1796-1878). Although it is neither dated nor inscribed, this hitherto unknown sketch shows Back’s ship, the converted bomb vessel HMS Terror, stranded in the pack ice of the ‘Frozen Strait’ during the long Arctic winter of September 1836 to July 1837. The expedition had intended to map the last sections of the uncharted coast of North America.

VICTORIAN plaster cast heads of British criminals were not simply macabre souvenirs. Most were created post-mortem as research for the pseudoscience of phrenology – the study of the size and shape of the brain and skull to determine personality.

WHEN it appeared for sale at Christie’s in Amsterdam in June 2015, the picture left was catalogued as ‘after Sir Anthony Van Dyck’.

Racehorse owner’s collection of tickets and passes is the finest at auction in living memory

Part of a 2000-year-old tradition, neoclassical cameo collection shines at Knightsbridge sale

Bonhams’ director Jean Ghika talks to Roland Arkell about a fundamental change in the jewellery market – and what 2017 might hold for buyers and sellers

THE highlight of Christie’s Old Master prints catalogue on January 25 – the first New York sale the auctioneer has held in this category for 15 years – was this monumental woodcut by Titian.