UK

Police have launched an investigation into a suspected fraud centred on a Lincolnshire antiques business.

There are promising signs for the future of the Wedgwood Museum thanks to planning approval given to redevelop the site where it is based near Stoke-on-Trent.

Wellers have just held their first back-to-back sales since inserting a mezzanine floor at their Guildford saleroom.

The second Oxford Conference for auctioneers on September 13-14 saw the launch of a new template for valuations devised by Rupert Toovey and Paul Britton.

Cheshire auctioneers Adam Partridge have discovered a copy of the Passover Haggadah written and illuminated by the celebrated 18th century scribe Aaron Wolf Herlingen in Vienna.

Over 120 players took to the football pitch on Saturday, September 7, for the annual antique and fine art industry five-a-side tournament. The event raised £16,000 for The Haven Breast Cancer Support Centres, the best ever total in its 11-year history.

Over 120 players took to the football pitch on Saturday, September 7, for the annual antique and fine art industry five-a-side tournament. The event raised £16,000 for The Haven Breast Cancer Support Centres, the best ever total in its 11-year history.

Campaigners against changes in VAT that affect showground fairs met for the first time at a crisis summit in London. They now intend to form a trade federation to fight the changes.

A house clearance in Staffordshire yielded this highly decorative pair of late 18th or early 19th century narwhal tusk and gilt-metal lanterns for Louis Taylor’s latest sale in Stoke-on-Trent.

One of the most interesting things about auctions is how unusual objects from one side of the world come to be sold on the other, often with no apparent link.

Whitehall officials overseeing CITES enforcement have removed guidelines from their website after conceding that they are confusing.

Christie’s Education are launching a new Art, Law and Business masters course, to be accredited by Glasgow University, next month.

Before the opening of Masterpiece London, London dealers Apter-Fredericks pledged to donate £1000 to the military charity Walking With the Wounded if they sold a pair of 19th century English cannons at the fair.

The Society of Fine Art Auctioneers and Valuers held a seminar titled ‘CITES, What’s Going On?’ in London on September 2 attended by more than 40 members.

As so often happens, a spectacular price for a very rare object will bring another out of the woodwork.

The Gloucester Antiques Centre has reopened under new management two weeks after its sudden closure over a rent dispute.

Break-ins to target jewellery dealers are not exactly uncommon these days, sadly, but there can’t be many involving home-made boats built to make a getaway.

Bonhams are to move their specialist oak and vernacular furniture and sporting memorabilia sales to Oxford from Chester as part of a further review of their regional operations.

Three pieces of Victorian art from the Leverhulme collection will be offered at Sotheby’s in London later this year with a combined estimate of £9m-14m.

The competition for private sales among the leading auction rooms will step up during the coming weeks as both Sotheby’s and Christie’s hold exhibitions at their new private galleries in London.