UK

Art market experts are calling for the trade to tackle the widely reported claim that the sector is unregulated, made by a defendant in a $50m international money-laundering case.

London auctioneer Roseberys is to offer a previously unpublished sketch by John Constable on March 21.

A long-running dispute over the export of an important Old Master painting from Portugal has finally been settled after authorities ended an attempt to have the work repatriated.

Paul Comolera (1818-97) was one of a series of prominent sculptors who travelled to work in Stoke-on-Trent at a time of political upheaval in France.

LAPADA, the Association of Art & Antiques Dealers, has appointed a former head of the Chelsea Flower Show as its new fairs and events director.

The landlord behind the redevelopment of Cork Street in Mayfair is planning a clutch of new gallery openings and art events as building work comes to an end.

‘Wally’ birds are among the most coveted of all pieces made by the famous Martin Brothers.

The Asian art sale at Chiswick confirmed that many of the better pieces of Chinese art are now well beyond the budget of the average western collector.

Widely exported during the Meiji period to a Western market newly awake to the skills of Japanese craftsmen, okimono now often appear at provincial salerooms.

A likely candidate as highlight of the year for Exeter auction house Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (21% buyer’s premium) will be the £305,000 Hans Coper vase (ATG last week, No 2332).

Two stand-out collections containing Old Master and traditional British works on paper were offered within 24 hours of each other in Oxfordshire.

London saleroom Chiswick Auctions has secured four significant pieces of European and British sculpture not seen on the market for at least a generation.

On a lesser scale than the exceptional £35,000 George II chairs at Holloway’s sale, but standing out from the general run of brown furniture, were other encouraging results across the country in February.

A small soapstone figure of a grinning, reclining Buddha stole the show at Thomas Watson (24% buyer’s premium) of Darlington when it smashed its estimate of £80-120 to sell for £16,500.

Flash from the past at the Diss rooms of TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium).