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SOTHEBY’S former chairman, A. Alfred Taubman, convicted in December of conspiring with rival auction house Christie’s to fix fees charged to sellers, must now wait until April 22 for sentencing.

A GROUP of investors has taken control of both Pittsburgh’s Dargate Auction Gallery and ewolfs, the troubled Cleveland-based dotcom enterprise.

With less than a month until the crunch series of Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York, it is still not clear whether Phillips will be joining Sotheby’s and Christie’s at sales which netted the company $124m last year.

The continued demand for Art Nouveau and the ageless appeal of the female nude provided a winning combination at the sale held by Richard Winterton (11% buyer’s premium) at Burton-on-Trent on March 13.

IN 1528 Albrecht Dürer wrote: “There lives no man upon earth who can give a final judgement upon what the most beautiful shape of a man may be; God only knows that.” As five exhibitions highlight, artists love to expose all the inconsistency of the human form, be it scrawny or rotund.

This silver novelty bookcase 121/2in (32cm) high, pictured right, marked for George Betjemann & Sons 1907, drew huge interest both before the sale and when it went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Knightbridge rooms on March 12. It left the auctioneers’ £300-400 estimate standing as it was pursued to £4300.

KEN PAUL COLLECTION: This bizarre late-19th century mahogany longcase timepiece, right fashioned as a coffin and containing a human skeleton, was the most extraordinary offering in what was itself a highly unusual sale held by Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) in Bond Street from March 13-15.

Neales-Kedleston Hall: The period between the wars and post-1945 saw the dissolution of many English country houses. The economic turmoil caused by conflict saw aristocratic families in dire financial straits and for many the only solution was to sell up and ship out.

“Pistol Sir – yes Sir – here you are sir – Revolver – most improved construction – 6 chambers sir – 2 for your wife – 2 for the destroyer of your happiness – 2 for yourself Sir – all the rage Sir – sell hundreds of ’em for bridal presents Sir !!!”....

Above right: the ‘Library’ portion of the Ken Paul Collection, a three-day sale of ‘antique’ film props that raised £1.5m at Sotheby’s last month was not large and was dispersed in eight job lots, but someone will doubtless have fun sorting through this collection of several hundred deeds, wills, leases, probates, transfers etc., mostly on vellum and largely 19th century, but including a few made-up props.

When Sotheby’s sold the second and third parts of Sotheby’s sale of the Jammes collection in Paris on March 21 and 22, the highest price was paid, as expected, for this exceptional collection of correspondence from the French father of photography, Nicéphore Niépce, and his son Isidore, featuring a heliographic reproduction of a Dutch print.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s may not have had a vintage New York Asian Art series this March, but private and trade buyers continued to compete for the best quality fresh-to-the-market entries.

In the week when the death was announced of Kenneth Wolstenholme – the man whose legendary utterance “They think it’s all over... it is now!” capped England’s 1966 World Cup win – what could have been more appropriate than a world record for a football shirt at auction.

The brutality and horror of everyday life in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp can be seen in a collection of pen, ink and watercolour sketches to be offered on April 16 at Bonhams, New Bond Street’s sale of topographical pictures.

SHORT of George Washington’s ‘cherry tree’ axe (or, possibly, his cherrywood teeth) this set of binoculars is probably the most poignant of US Presidential personal possessions.

This previously undiscovered miniature on ivory of Lincolnshire dignitary Charles De Laet Waldo-Sibthorp is expected to take up to £2000 when it is offered for sale on April 24 at the Lincoln rooms of Thomas Mawer & Sons.

A CONMAN with an “appalling record”, who cheated antique dealers across the country has been jailed for six years at Salisbury Crown Court.

THE Heritage Lottery Fund have announced a grant of £404,500 to help the Walker Museum in Liverpool acquire an exquisite Weld Blundell Amber Cabinet, which was due for export.

AS New York’s Asia Week came to a close last week, early reports suggest the market for Oriental work is internationally still very strong and that in this field at least business is back to normal in the American capital.

Museums are well known as the protectors of age, but now we have an example of how age is to prove the downfall of such an institution. The silver lining to this cloud is that it provides a unique opportunity for the trade and collectors.