News

Next month the Royal Observatory, Greenwich will unveil four new galleries designed to tell the story of precision timekeeping.

A funding package worth £7m has been agreed allowing construction to begin on a new Wedgwood Museum in the heart of the Potteries at the company’s Barlaston headquarters.

Leading numismatic auctioneers and dealers Spink have announced the acquisition of B.J. Dawson Coins. Brian Dawson, who opened his first shop in Bolton, Lancashire and has over 40 years’ experience in the coin trade, will join the firm as director of the coin dealing business for Spink.

Two fine lots of 17th century English pewter greeted New Year bidders in the country.

Ninety-one-year-old John Werner Kluge is the stuff of the American Dream – a German immigrant who amassed his fortune in the States buying radio and television stations.

Christie’s have announced £1.8bn ($3.2bn) in global sales for 2005, the highest total in the firm’s history and more than 30 per cent up on 2004.

Sales at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris rose 16 per cent in 2005 to €414m (£280m), but firms based elsewhere in the city also continued to increase their market share.