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A poster for the film Metropolis, considered by many to be the holy grail of science fiction posters, has been sold by London dealers The Reel Poster Gallery to a Californian private collector for $690,000 (£390,000).

AN innovative device for securing paintings has won wide recognition at a prestigious European scientific and engineering event.

Christie’s return higher total for a single sale, but Sotheby’s secure top price of series

The final 51 lots of Woolley & Wallis’s sale on October 19 comprised the Fauconberg & Conyers Heirlooms.

The stock-in-trade and private collection of Maurice Turpin who died in March, will be sold by Christie’s in London next spring. Two sales, on March 9 and 14, will offer over 800 items and are estimated to fetch over £2m.

The second tranche of a private collection of nutmeg graters was offered at Woolley & Wallis’ October 19 sale.

The niche market appears to be the driving force in silver sales today.

Yorkshire auctioneers and valuers DDM have joined a growing list of regional firms who have gone into receivership.

POLICE are appealing for information following the theft of four stuffed heads of wild animals that were stolen from a Leicestershire house.

ATG have received these new pictures of two men thought to be targeting antique shops and centres in the Thames Valley area.

The cosy Dorset town of Sherborne is not usually associated with bloody revolution and armed struggle, but Sherborne-based Charterhouse Auctioneers have unearthed two items redolent with memories of the American Revolution.

THE Swiss authorities have launched a criminal investigation into scam guide firms and their associated debt recovery agencies.

Dreweatt Neate Fine Art have arranged a major private treaty sale to the National Library of Australia, on behalf of a prominent UK family, of a historically important folio of watercolours.

The emerging class of wealthy Chinese buyers continues to boost the top-end of the art and antiques market in the Far East. So it wasn’t a huge surprise that Sotheby’s set a house record in this autumn’s Hong Kong series, taking HK$850.9m (£61.7m) from seven sales.

Police in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, are investigating a series of thefts from antiques shops and galleries in the area over the last month, which officers believe are linked.

ART donations to public collections could soon be used to partially offset income tax.

A memorial service for Barry Davies, the well-known dealer in Japanese works of art who died in September, will be held on Monday, December 12.

The Richmond Gold Cup was one of the great Georgian flat races. Four miles, eight of the finest thoroughbreds of the day, and an ancient course set in the rolling Capability Brown parklands of Aske Hall.

BY IVAN MACQUISTEN Droit de Suite, the much-feared extra levy on art sales, cannot now be introduced in the UK on January 1 next year.

BY IAN MCKAYWRITING about some of the more important items in his peerless private collection of atlases and geographies, the late Lord Wardington said of the Doria Atlas: “I just hope that it... will prove to be as good an investment in the future as I might have made in stocks and shares.”