News

A COLLECTION of gold boxes that hadn’t seen the light of day for 200 years, a charming collection of novelty silver animals, a good quality spoon collection and plenty else in between all contributed to the highest total ever seen for a silver sale at Bonhams Bond Street on July 2.

SETTING an auction record for a golf medal, Willie Fernie's 1883 Open Championship winner's medal sold for £48,500 at the sale held by Maxwells of Wilmslow, Cheshire on July 15. In good condition and in its original box, the silver-gilt medal was won by Scotland’s four-times runner-up in his only Open victory at Musselburgh.

Ebay have won a landmark judgment in the US federal courts, which effectively protects their position as an independent trading platform.

GALERIE Kugel in Paris are to hold an exhibition of the Prince of Liechtenstein’s collection of bronzes from September 10 to November 7.

THE controversial Treasury-led proposals to radically increase CITES licence charges will not come into effect until next year at the earliest. In some cases CITES permits, required for the export outside the European Union of antiques incorporating ivory and other elements of endangered species, are to rise from £7 for each permit (among the lowest in Europe) to as much as £59 (the highest).

THEY say everyone has a doppelganger. For Elvis Presley it seems his lookalike was an inhabitant of ancient Rome. This Roman marble acroterion – a 13in (33cm) high carved head from a sarcophagus corner dating from the 2nd century AD – does bear a remarkable likeness to the King in his Las Vegas period.

The German auctioneers Ketterer Kunst will mark the opening of their first purpose-built saleroom at Neue Messe in Munich with a traditional Bavarian-style topping-out ceremony on July 23.