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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Hemswell heads back to 1940s

13 August 2018

The idea to stage a 1940s weekend of events at Hemswell Antique Centres near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire in late July to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the RAF came from some of the dealers based there.

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Sculpture in the spotlight at Dreweatts auction

13 August 2018

The first stand-alone British and European sculpture sale to be held by Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium) was a solid-enough affair to justify department head Cristian Beadman’s belief that there is an exploitable gap in the market.

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Madonna viewed across centuries

13 August 2018

Two depictions of the Madonna painted some 400 years apart were among the highlights of a dedicated sale of pictures at Dreweatts (24% buyer’s premium) in Donnington Priory in Berkshire.

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Previews: £30,000 plus

13 August 2018

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

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Cabinet result runs Chinese charger close in Exeter

13 August 2018

It’s a rare sale these days at which an English furniture standard challenges quality Chinese pieces for price, but the top end of the trade certainly rated a 6ft 3in (1.9m) William and Mary walnut and featherbanded bureau cabinet offered by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium).

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The alternative Quentin Blake revealed at auction

13 August 2018

Preparatory and other unused drawings relating to Roald Dahl classics come to auction

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Mayfair gallery keeps it simple with Deco desks

13 August 2018

Simplicity and geometry are key to the works of Eugène Printz, one of the Parisian practitioners of Art Deco design.

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Huanghali heads to high popularity

13 August 2018

Just as fine English mahogany is selling below par, Chinese furniture, particularly in the desirable huanghuali hardwood, is booming.

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Striking binding of Thomas Gray work

13 August 2018

A selection of fine or unusual bindings seen at auction during the summer months will feature more prominently in a future issue, but shown here is a 1751 first of Thomas Gray’s An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church Yard in a striking later binding that was among lots offered at Chiswick Auctions (25/12% buyer’s premium) on July 12.

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Modern business model for 1793 Gallery

13 August 2018

Kate Moss – or at least an arresting image of her by Los Angeles street artist Mr Brainwash – is coming to a Cotswolds exhibition to launch 1793 Gallery.

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Mayfair dealer curates landscape exhibition from Frank Cohen collection at Fortnum & Mason

11 August 2018

Robert Upstone, a Modern British art dealer and former director of the Fine Art Society, has curated this year’s collaboration between upmarket food purveyor Fortnum & Mason and leading art collector Frank Cohen.

 Sumerian antiquities

Ancient antiquities seized from dealer returned to Iraq after British Museum research

10 August 2018

Eight Sumerian antiquities seized by the Metropolitan Police from a London dealer in 2003 are to be returned to Iraq after identification by the British Museum.

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Spitfire flypasts and vintage makeovers: New festival at Royal Air Force Museum Cosford launchs this weekend

10 August 2018

A new Vintage and Handmade Festival launches this weekend at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford in Shropshire.

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London events celebrate British love of art and the garden

10 August 2018

Along with national characteristics such as moaning about the weather, constantly saying sorry and an eagerness to join a queue, the British love of gardening is very well known.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi

Salvator Mundi: Christie’s refutes Oxford academic’s opinion challenging attribution to Leonardo

09 August 2018

Auctioneers Christie’s have refuted the view expressed by Oxford academic Dr Matthew Landrus that Salvator Mundi should be attributed to one of Leonardo’s assistants rather than the master himself.

Egypt recovers Islamic manuscript spotted in Bonhams auction

09 August 2018

A rare Islamic manuscript consigned to a Bonhams auction in London has been returned to Egypt in the latest example of Egyptian authorities succeeding in retrieving artefacts from abroad.

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Charles Rennie Mackintosh's cabinet for ‘Miss Cranston’ goes under the hammer in Cambridge

08 August 2018

A cabinet made by Scottish designer and architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Catherine Cranston, a Victorian tea room entrepreneur, goes under the hammer at Willingham Auctions this week.

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Lalique mascots collection amassed by author Geoffrey G Weiner up at auction in Lewes

07 August 2018

René Lalique has been dubbed the most celebrated glassmaker in the world by 1925 at the height of the Art Deco era, and among the vast range of his wares so much is available for collectors to concentrate on.

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Fake or Fortune? series returns to screens with Henry Moore, Toulouse-Lautrec and Alberto Giacometti in focus

07 August 2018

The BBC’s 'Fake or Fortune?' returns to our screens with the seventh series on Sunday.

UK books trade on alert after US library theft

06 August 2018

Rare books and prints valued at millions of dollars remain at large in the international market in the wake of a US library theft.

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