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Inertia characterised the Antiques Collectors’ Club’s annual Antique Furniture Index in 2007, giving weight to the impression that antique furniture prices have now bottomed out.

Christie’s have confirmed their position as the art market’s biggest business, announcing 2007 premium inclusive sales of £3.1bn ($6.3bn).

‘Best ever’ year with $600m global sales

Prize lots boost smaller salerooms

Adams of Dublin were once again top of the Irish rooms posting a €19.4m (£14.6m) hammer turnover for 2007.

Scottish auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull started off their year on January 10 with the sale of the Deloitte Art Collection at The Royal Academy in London.

THE size of the world art market all but doubled between 2002 and 2006, according to the latest survey commissioned by The European Fine Art Federation.

For the first time, a trio of auction firms pulled clear of the field in Paris in 2007.

THE price of gold hit a 28-year high last week as rises in the oil price and inflation fears drove the gold fix to over $850.

The emergence of a significant new discovery is a guaranteed crowd-puller in any sector of the art and antiques market.

POLICE are on the lookout for a gang of thieves who stole a chest of antique coins worth over £150,000 from London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb. They are believed to be the same people who targeted dealers in Hatton Garden late last year.

In 1963, the daring actions of a 15-strong band of small-time London criminals captivated the world’s media. In 2007, it seems the Great Train Robbery still has the capacity to seize headlines.

The extraordinarily elaborate diptych from c.1350-75, shown here, will be on show at The Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House from January 10 to March 9.

BACK in 1936, a Mr Harry Woods decided to refurbish his home, The Gate House in Brighouse, and commissioned a fellow Yorkshireman, working some 50 miles away, to provide interior panelling, window seats and doors, as well as various items of furniture.

London-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have changed the dates and venue of their 13th annual International Asian Art Fair in New York.

Souvenir hunters bid for their own slice of history at Savoy's spring clean

THIEVES have stolen a collection of war medals Ð including five Victoria Crosses Ð awarded to 12 of New ZealandÕs most highly decorated servicemen. The burglary took place shortly after 1am on December 2 at the Army Museum in Waiouru.

At 3ft 21/4in (97cm) long, this exceptionally rare Scottish Highland two-hand sword or claymore dates to the third quarter of the 16th century. So rare is it, in fact, that no other example has appeared on the market in recent years.

This massive silver-gilt shield of Achilles, by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell of London, lost to scholars for the better part of the 20th century, appeared at Sotheby's on December 18 after resurfacing in Belgium.

The last privately owned copy of Magna Carta will remain in the USA after its $19m (£9.8m) purchase by billionaire David Rubenstein.