Front Page and News

Fair organisers were forced into making dramatic changes to their schedule as almost every event in the UK and Ireland was either cancelled or postponed last week, while many dealers were left facing the most challenging conditions for trading in living memory.

There’s an age-old adage that wherever there’s a willing buyer and a willing seller, the two cannot be separated. But the current outbreak of the coronavirus has had more effect in creating distance between these two than anything experienced in modern times.

Sim Fine Art has sold a 28-work collection of pictures by Second World War artist Paul Drury (1903-87) to the Science Museum in London.

The Open Art Fair, the new incarnation of what was the annual BADA fair in Chelsea, opened in hugely difficult circumstances on Wednesday March 18.

The recent sale of Clarice Cliff, Art Deco & Design at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury included 27 works by the studio potter William Staite Murray (1881-1962).

The collection of Rozenburg pottery and porcelain belonging to the late children’s television presenter John Noakes (1934-2017) was sold at a recent auction in Dorchester.

In an early test of the art market after the announcement of social distancing guidance, Sotheby’s latest ‘Made in Britain’ auction recorded a dramatic increase in online bidding.

With the coronavirus outbreak impacting the art and antiques trade, the number of fairs being cancelled or postponed is extensive.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has set out a package of temporary measures to support businesses through the Covid-19 period of disruption.

The UK’s art and antiques trade is bracing itself for challenging times as the impact of coronavirus takes hold.

One of the highlights of a busy week in the salerooms came at Dreweatts’ auction of the Sir William Whitfield (1920-2019) collection.

Leading auction houses around the UK told ATG last week that their sales calendars will continue as planned, with sensible precautions being taken in the saleroom. Many reported strong sales last week but some expressed understandable concern about future consignments. Here is an edited selection of their comments.

With the UK auction calendar yet to undergo significant changes and cancellations due to the coronavirus outbreak, many sales took place last week. Here are three highlights from around the country.

Among the rarest of all Subbuteo games invented and manufactured by Peter Adolph in Tunbridge Wells are those without a sporting theme.

This pair of 19th century continental silver-gilt figure groups is among the objects from a Rothschild collection to be sold by Woolley & Wallis later this year.

Online auction marketplace thesaleroom.com (owned by ATG parent Auction Technology Group) made the following announcement to reassure auction houses that internet bidding will continue uninterrupted:

Art and antiques dealers have welcomed news from Chancellor Rishi Sunak that the government will abolish business rates for small businesses for 12 months but warned more still needs to be done.