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Auction house Sotheby’s has reported a 70% jump in private sales in the first three months of 2018 to $247m (£182m).

Nearly 90% of art and antiques dealers want easier ways to borrow money to fund purchases and nearly a third believe the lack of available lending hampers growth, according to a recent report.

A database of Egyptian and Nubian antiquities has been launched by the British Museum after it was awarded a government grant of nearly £1m.

Five pieces of royal wedding cake are set to go under the hammer in Las Vegas this summer.

Nearly 4000 artefacts smuggled into the US for shipment to the arts-and-crafts retailer Hobby Lobby were returned to Iraq this week.

Imperial Health Charity was awarded £8000 to add to its collection at the London Original Print Fair last night.

A look at the latest moves in the trade.

A card signed ‘I am Jack the Ripper’ that had been in police files until the case into the Victorian killer was eventually closed sold for £22,000 at Grand Auctions of Folkestone, Kent earlier this week.

Among the rich history of the British military is the story of regimental silver. As regiments are disbanded or amalgamated much of this history has been in danger of fading away, but these magnificent examples of silver help to keep memories alive.

A painting thought to be a copy of a Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) portrait when it was deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art will now be offered at Christie’s in London with a full attribution. It will carry an estimate of £3m-5m.

Sotheby’s is involved in a court case surrounding the dating of a bronze sold at auction two years ago.

A Sir Stanley Spencer painting will be shown in public for the first time in more than half a century ahead of its auction at Sotheby’s.

A Cambridge auctioneer has negotiated the return of a pre-Columbian artefact to the Bolivian government.