UK

The United Kingdom accounts for more than one fifth of the global art market sales and is the second biggest art market after the US.

Through auctioneers, dealers, fairs and markets - and a burgeoning online sector - buyers, collectors and sellers of art and antiques can easily access a vibrant network of intermediaries and events around the country. The UK's museums also house a wealth of impressive collections

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Inside the Masterpiece tent for the tenth time

19 June 2019

Housed in a remarkable purpose-built marquee, Masterpiece London returns to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in Chelsea for its tenth anniversary

Crab

Record-breaking Martin Brothers grinning crab barred from export

18 June 2019

A ‘colossal and extraordinary grotesque grinning crab’ by the Martin Brothers that sold at auction last year has been temporarily barred from export from the UK.

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Sotheby's sold to media entrepreneur and art collector Patrick Drahi in $3.7bn deal

17 June 2019

Sotheby’s has been sold to BidFair USA, a company owned by media and telecom entrepreneur and art collector Patrick Drahi.

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Organiser IACF expands with Peterborough antiques fair purchase

17 June 2019

The International Antiques & Collectors Fair (IACF) has added the Peterborough Festival of Antiques to its extensive portfolio.

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Burne-Jones sketches head to Delaware museum via Cambridge

17 June 2019

Two studies by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones for his 1868 oil Hymenaeus will soon be reunited with the finished painting.

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Footfall rises and sales top £3m for ABA’s Rare Book Fair in Battersea

17 June 2019

Visitors to the ABA’s 'Firsts: London’s Rare Book Fair' spent more than £3m over the events three days.

Caroline Penman: ‘Will anyone save Chelsea?’

17 June 2019

Caroline Penman, organiser of the Chelsea Antiques Fair since 1983, is hoping to find a new owner willing to maintain the venerable event.

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Chippendale sits comfortably at Masterpiece London

17 June 2019

When Sir Robert Burdett (1716-97), 4th Baron Bramcote, undertook the remodelling of his early 18th century home Foremarke Hall from 1759-62, he contracted Thomas Chippendale to refurnish the house. The cabinet maker – one of several employed in the project – was paid around £1000 for the giltwood seating furniture which is thought to have included at least 10 elbow chairs, two window seats and a sofa.

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Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair

Beethoven’s hair bid to £28,000 at Sotheby’s

17 June 2019

A lock of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair that was “evidently given” by the great composer to the pianist Anton Halm in 1826 was knocked down at £28,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in London last week.

British and Irish book auctions from June 18-29, 2019

17 June 2019

ATG’s calendar of book auctions taking place in the UK and Ireland from June 18-29, 2019.

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Spike Milligan-dedicated work to Harold Wilson sets record at Hansons' auction

17 June 2019

In the dispersal by Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) of the collections of Harold and Mary Wilson, the book section included copies of John Maynard Keynes’ 'General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money' of 1936 and 'A Treatise on Money' of 1933.

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Bone on Boney at miniature show

17 June 2019

An 1817 miniature of Napoleon by British painter Henry Bone (1755-1834) is among the highlights at Ellison Fine Art’s exhibition of portrait miniatures this month.

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Rediscovering ‘Good Design’ at Kensington Church Street show

17 June 2019

'What Happened to Good Design', a summer selling exhibition at Hill House in Kensington Church Street, was inspired by a show at design shop Heal’s in 1982 of the same name. It offers works from the Arts & Crafts period and beyond.

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Antiques and vintage village returns within Kent County Show

17 June 2019

The annual three-day Kent County Show is a big favourite in the southeast of England and has been held at the Kent County Showground, near Maidstone since 1964.

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Arts & Crafts oak from the second and third generation

17 June 2019

Mallams (20% buyer’s premium) offered 12 impeccably provenanced pieces by Peter Waals (1870-1937) at Oxford on May 23.

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Previews : £30,000 plus

17 June 2019

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

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The Ashburton trail begins to grow

17 June 2019

Six months ago a small town on the edge of Dartmoor with a population of 4000 launched an antiques trail to promote all 11 of its antiques and vintage shops. Now the Ashburton Antiques Trail includes both the expansion of one of its existing businesses into larger premises and the arrival of a 12th antiques shop.

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Thornhill’s Chinaman strikes a chord in Ayr

17 June 2019

More of a curiosity than a clock but a decorator’s dream, a life-size caricature of a smiling Chinese man clutching a willow-pattern plate with gilt dragon hands emerged in the Ayr rooms of Thomas R Callan (17.5% buyer’s premium).

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5 Questions: James Butterwick

17 June 2019

James Butterwick is a dealer in Russian art of the early 20th century in London.

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