News

TENSION in the Middle and Far East has sparked a rapid rise in gold prices – the biggest in six years. The gold fix soared £4 an ounce in the second week of January – amplified to a $9 rise by the weakening dollar – as the world continued to brace itself for war in Iraq and further trouble with North Korea. Meanwhile low interest rates have made gold a more promising investment.

LAPADA’S 2002 membership survey shows that dealers seem to be heading back to the public arena rather than working from home or conducting business by appointment only.

ON December 10 Cambridge auctioneers Cheffins (15% buyer’s premium) offered the residual contents from the home of amateur painter and gallery owner Olive Cook, whose early friendships with Henry Moore and Eric Ravilious helped hone her artistic eye.

NEIL Munro, the former managing director of DMG Antiques Fairs, has joined Shropshire-based Wellington Market Company, the owners of Town and Country Fairs, to create a dedicated antiques division.

NEW York-based fair organisers Wendy Management launch their Wendy International Antiques Show at the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue and 67th Street, from March 7 to 11.

High quality watches are still in demand but condition is all-important to today’s discerning collectors. At a sale devoted entirely to watches at Christie’s King Street back on November 26, this gold chronograph pocket watch, right, by Louis Audemars c.1870 took £40,000.

Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg have refused to comment on a national press report that they are to cut half of their workforce and scrap their Impressionist and Modern art department.