Front Page and News

The British Antique Dealers’ Association has sold a majority stake in its annual fair to “make it sustainable for the future”.

Sussex auction house Burstow & Hewett has withdrawn a rare Maori cloak after its imminent sale was met by online threats and abuse.

Jeremy Lamond, Halls’ fine art director, is stepping down after 23 years at the firm.

The organisers of Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong have confirmed the event will proceed as planned, despite the ongoing anti-government protests in the city.

Dealer Ian Shaw sold this Tutsi shield, made of lightweight wood with natural pigment and offered for £13,000, to an interior designer from Denmark at last week’s 'Tribal Art London' fair.

Could these be the opera glasses used by Mary Lincoln on the night her husband was assassinated? Colchester auction house Reeman Dansie will offer them for sale on September 24-25 with a guide price of £10,000-20,000.

A 15% tax on imports into the US of art, antiques and manuscripts made in China took effect on September 1.

Sotheby’s shareholders have approved a $3.7bn deal to sell the company to media and telecoms entrepreneur Patrick Drahi.

Bonhams’ Oxford office is to reopen as a saleroom for two auctions in the autumn season.

Dealers from France and England contributed to a protracted bidding battle for a rare Renaissance maiolica dish offered at an auction house in Saxony.

Maidenhead auction house Dawson’s is to sell a collection of Martinware on behalf of descendants of an important patron of the Southall pottery.

Fair organiser Caroline Penman has abandoned her plan for retirement and will take on the running of the next Chelsea Antiques Fair – but at a reduced length.

A Bath museum hopes to acquire a rare hoard of coins found in a Chew Valley field that could be valued at £4m.

Many of the high prices achieved at last week’s ‘celebrity’ sale titled Bob Hawke & Blanche d’Alpuget: Mementos, Curiosities, Art and Design reflected the impact of souvenir hunters, anxious to own a reminder of Australia’s former prime minister who died earlier this year. But not all of them.

Purchased for £1 from a Hertfordshire charity shop earlier this year, a Qianlong famille rose wall vase will carry an estimate of over £50,000 at Sworders in the autumn.