UK

Pictures released of some of the stolen items

The London Assay Office is advising extra caution when buying antique silver following the assessment of spoons bearing forged marks submitted by four auctioneers last year.

The Victoria & Albert Museum’s sculpture collection will be redisplayed this spring in the new Dorothy and Michael Hintze Galleries.

Establishing a new landmark for a picture lot sold at auction outside London, two portraits by Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) took £900,000 at Dreweatt Neate’s Donnington Priory salerooms last week.

Late January/early February has become the new slot for golfiana sales with events held by Bonhams Chester (January 28) and Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh (February 7).

On a cold January 26 night in Edinburgh, a packed saleroom at Lyon & Turnbull witnessed a defining moment in the Scottish art market.

An antiques dealer from Heathfield in Sussex has become the first British woman to complete the punishing Dakar Rally. The appropriately named Patsy Quick, owner of Toad Hall Antiques, set off on the 16-day trek on January 1 in Portugal, crossing Spain and Africa in the 5600-mile trip to Dakar, Senegal. She crossed the finish line on her motorbike one place ahead of her partner, Clive Town.

AFTER 31 years Caroline Penman has axed her original London fixture, the West London Antiques Fair, which has been held at Kensington Town Hall every January since 1976.

The tripod table is among the selection of Early Mahogany furniture that contributes to the ACC Antique Furniture Price Index. The sector recorded a 6% fall in 2005 – with tripod tables of routine quality dropping in price – but better examples of any form will buck the general trend.

Next month the Royal Observatory, Greenwich will unveil four new galleries designed to tell the story of precision timekeeping.

A funding package worth £7m has been agreed allowing construction to begin on a new Wedgwood Museum in the heart of the Potteries at the company’s Barlaston headquarters.

Leading numismatic auctioneers and dealers Spink have announced the acquisition of B.J. Dawson Coins. Brian Dawson, who opened his first shop in Bolton, Lancashire and has over 40 years’ experience in the coin trade, will join the firm as director of the coin dealing business for Spink.

Two fine lots of 17th century English pewter greeted New Year bidders in the country.

Buoyed up by an increasing number of consignments from England, Edinburgh-based auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull are opening an office in central London.

ST James’s gallery Frost and Reed, founded in 1808, have undergone a management shake-up and will have an increased focus on Contemporary art.

Helped by a £2.6m windfall, Salisbury auctioneers Woolley & Wallis emerged from 2005 as the largest-grossing UK provincial saleroom.

PARTRIDGE are to relaunch themselves on the fairs scene with a stand at the British Antique Dealers Association fair in March.

THE giant RAF Swinderby fair will ditch Sunday trading and move to a Monday to Wednesday slot in the run-up to Newark from January.

Gloucester auctioneers Bruton Knowles are experimenting with a new software package that allows online visitors to turn selected objects 360 degrees for a detailed inspection.

WEDNESDAY, December 14 sees Thomas Del Mar Ltd’s inaugural sale of arms and armour at Sotheby’s Olympia.