Front Page and News

Tis the season to sell Victoria Crosses… three have come up at auction recently and posted strong results, including a world record.

Update (July 2019): auctions resumed at Bloomsbury in 2018 following Gurr Johns' purchase of Dreweatts and Bloomsbury in 2017. In February 2019 it expanded the number of sales at its London office at 16-17 Pall Mall. The original story is below.

The latest Old Master auctions in London gave encouragement to the sector as keen competition came for a noticeably higher number of works pitched at relatively attractive levels.

LAPADA has reached outside the art and antiques sector for its new chief executive, appointing the former publishing director of Tatler magazine, Patricia Stevenson.

Art Basel-owner MCH Group is to expand the Masterpiece brand across the US, Asia and the Middle East after it bought a majority stake in the art fair.

Despite its current high profile, commercial interest in Soviet-era art remains selective. With the centenary of the Russian Revolution and anniversary exhibitions at the Royal Academy and Tate Modern, the latest series of Russian sales in London had aimed to cash in on the focus on this sector.

The Jean-Claude Lepileur (1926-2016) collection of Chinese archaic bronzes offered as a stand-alone collection at Gorringe’s in Lewes on November 28 totalled £582,000.

A philosopher of mathematics, the human consciousness and language, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was described by his teacher Bertrand Russell as “the most perfect example I have ever known of genius as traditionally conceived”.

Shapes Auctioneers based in Edinburgh is to close.

When is parachuting in a leader from outside an industry a good idea?

For the first time, the UK art and antiques trade has publicly made the case for a licensing system that would permit the sale of antique ivory on a case-by-case basis.

Lee Young, Asian art specialist and international director at Lyon & Turnbull, is joining Duke’s of Dorchester in December. He will assume the role of managing director.

An internal review into the export licence system for works of art is under way, writes Roland Arkell.

A Sino-Tibetan gilt-bronze of a serene Amitayus confounded modest expectations to sell for $690,000 (£518,000) at the Neal Auction Gallery in New Orleans.

Sotheby’s posted a record for the artist CRW Nevinson on November 21 when an important Great War scene was knocked down at £1.55m (£1.87m including premium).

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War will be offered at auction in Oxford next month.

The art and antiques trade has a new opportunity to state the case for antique ivory in a meeting with MPs and peers this week.

The impact of the controversial 2016 cultural heritage bill has moved up the political agenda in Germany in the wake of the country’s recent elections.

Well-provenanced Chinese works of art posted strong sums in what was a workmanlike, rather than spectacular, Asian art season for the leading regional auctioneers.

In this 1917 Revolution centenary year, Soviet art assumes extra prominence at this season’s Russian series.