Front Page and News

Forum Auctions has set a record for a copy of JRR Tolkien’s 'The Lord of the Rings'.

The collection of Selim Zilkha (1927-2022), founder of Mothercare, represented a stern test of the market for early English silver.

The closure of Roma Numismatics and competition from overseas meant total sales across London coins and medals auctions fell to £51.7m in 2024.

As with last year’s equivalent sales, the winter Old Masters auctions in New York looked a little thin.

In last week’s news story about auction house overall sales totals for 2024 (ATG No 2679) we said that the highest-value objects sold in the UK by any regional auction house last year were two Antonine over-lifesize busts of empresses which hammered at £600,000 each at Lyon & Turnbull.

Focusing on the single-owner space helped both Dreweatts and Lyon & Turnbull to achieve strong numbers in 2024.

An early 16th century carved oak panel that may depict Catherine of Aragon and her daughter Mary (later Mary I) has sold for £13,000 at auction in Sussex.

London summer event The Treasure House Fair has appointed Simon Phillips of Mayfair gallery Ronald Phillips as chairman of the fair and the advisory board.

A family-owned antiques centre in Lancaster is set to close its doors after 34 years in business.

Plans are being drawn up for a marketing initiative designed to replace London Art Week (LAW), the yearly festival of traditional art that folded at the end of 2024.

Art dealer Dominic Sanchez-Cabello has sold a rare portrait by Emma Soyer (c.1810-42) to the Yale Center for British Art.

The British Art Market Federation (BAMF) has appointed Tom Christopherson as its new chairman.

Dealers reported a good start to sales at the Decorative Fair (January 21-26) in Battersea as ATG visited early on, with US decorators especially out in force.

London dealer William Thuillier has sold a portrait of Frederick Augustus I, the Elector of Saxony and Duke of Warsaw, to the armoury of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden.

On February 6 Woolley & Wallis is selling the Sir Bruno Welby collection of European porcelain. Estimates across 350 lots cover an affordable range from £50 to £2500 with the group as a whole expected to fetch around £100,000.