UK

A house clearer has won a High Court battle to regain possession of a pair of medieval embroideries thought to be worth millions after a longstanding dispute with a fine art specialist.

THE latest Modern British art sale at Christie's in London set a series of new benchmarks for the sector.

GLASGOW acquired a new auction house last month when Mulberry Bank Auctions officially opened with a drinks reception on the evening of May 20.

THE organisers of the UK’s largest contemporary art fair, Frieze, are launching two new events for 2012.

SALISBURY auctioneers Woolley & Wallis saw two more lots make over £1m last week.

Just as traders in Portobello were celebrating victory in the Admiral Vernon dispute, they heard that the Good Fairy arcade across the road had been closed as the freeholders, Carmac Portobello Ltd, had gone into administration.

THOMAS Grant Dixon formed his Worcester collection from 1940-70. This discerning collector was a great friend of H. Rissik Marshall, the famed Worcester collector and author whose collection now resides in the Ashmolean at Oxford.

STALLHOLDERS throughout Portobello’s arcades planned to don ‘Marion’ masks last Saturday in a mass protest over the latest turn of events in the market.

CHINESE works of art dominated this month's Asian sales series in London but among the most successful auctions last week was Bonhams' dispersal of the second part of the Edward Wrangham (1928-2009) collection.

THE Fifth Annual Art Investment Conference will take place on May 27 at the London Business School and this year’s theme is Art Investment in the New Information Age. It will focus on the impact of increasing transparency on the global art market and how to adapt.

"The best piece of furniture sold in Shropshire in a decade," enthused Shrewsbury auctioneer Jeremy Lamond of Halls.

THE day after bullion prices peaked, thieves broke into an antiques centre in Cardiff and escaped with a haul of antique silver valued at thousands of pounds.

HUGE quantities of antique silver and gold were scrapped last week as precious metal prices hit record highs.

ANTIQUES fairs will be able to continue at Swinderby for some time, despite the site’s prospective development as a gravel pit.

Tennants sale in Leyburn on March 24-26 enjoyed a substantial contribution from George Tinworth (1843-1913) and his wonderful anthropomorphic mice.

BACK in the 1980s, on the back of the Lalique boom, there used to be fairly regular offerings of scent bottles at auction in London.

DEALERS at Portobello Road were celebrating a dramatic victory last week after the council rejected a planning application which campaigners said would have been “devastating” for the antiques market.

THE owner of a tearoom in Horncastle, Lincolnshire claims he is a victim of bureaucracy after he was told he could face prosecution for selling antiques from the premises.

THE National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA) are holding their annual forum for chattels auctioneers and valuers – or anyone with an interest in the industry – at The Belfry, West Midlands just off the M42 on May 9.

THEY may look plain and simple, but this pair of silver wall-hanging candle scones had private and trade bidders clamouring to buy when they came up for sale last week at Colchester auction rooms Reeman Dansie.