News

IN Paris the auction year will start in the most spectacular manner with the Yves Saint Laurent/Bergé collection sale on February 23-24. But 2009 holds out promise for the French art market in other areas too.

Prisoner-of-war work is the name given to intricately crafted small objects created from carved bone or wood and straw marquetry by captured French prisoners languishing in the hulks and other jails during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

THE Inland Revenue are calling for more firms to use their new Business Payment Support Service after receiving more than 44,500 phone calls asking for help since it was launched in November.

THE flagship art sales in London saw a good take up last week after estimates were cut by as much as 40 per cent from their boom levels.

THE global credit crunch's latest victims are the Moscow World Fine Art Fair and the Salzburg World Fine Art Fair, which will not go ahead this year.

ATG Media have launched their bid to replace eBay as the primary provider of live online auctions. There have been several companies jockeying for position since the demise of eBay Live Auctions at the end of last year, but ATG Media, who also own Antiques Trade Gazette, argue that their new partnership scheme offers the best deal.

WOOLLEY and Wallis silver specialist Alex Butcher is well known for his expertise in the spoon world, but his most recent offering at the Salisbury saleroom took the specialisation a step further.