London

An archive comprising Lucian Freud’s sketchbooks, drawings and letters has been acquired by the nation from the estate of the artist through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme.

A simple pencil message on a wooden sextant case sold at a London auction tells a story of desperate shipwrecked sailors adrift in a dinghy and running out of food and water.

Penman Fairs will launch a new London event for 2016 called ‘Art, Antiques & Design’.

Stakeholders in the art market are being asked to participate in a project seeking to gauge the effect of a total ban on the sale of ivory works of art in the UK.

Christie’s have announced major changes to their antiquities sales calendar in London and New York.

“There are 12 symbols in the Chinese language for the word fake – and each means something slightly different”.

Following a long legal battle, London dealer Joost van den Bergh has successfully overturned a controversial customs decision to seize three rare 17th century ivories.

Police are appealing for help from the antiques trade to trace two men captured on CCTV at the scene of a watches burglary in London.

Colnaghi, the venerable London Old Master dealership, is to merge with art dealers Coll & Cortés (London and Madrid).

The British Antique Dealers’ Association has sold its Knightbridge headquarters for a “multi-million pound sum” as it continues to evolve into a proactive 21st century trade association.

Online auction site Paddle8, who recently took space in Mayfair, have secured $34m in new funding.

A Rembrandt portrait sold in a £35m private sale negotiated by Sotheby’s will be staying in the UK after the overseas buyer withdrew their application to export the painting.

Nottingham-based John Pye Auctions are expanding into Mayfair.

Two single-owner collections of Martinware – each exceptional in their own way – will appear for sale on either side of the Atlantic this autumn.

Scientific, medical and natural history books from the library of the Royal Institution are to be sold at Christie’s on December 1.

London’s Frieze Week, an annual high point of Modern and Contemporary art fairs and auctions, will take place one week earlier than usual in 2016, as the organisers of Frieze fairs have moved their dates forward to avoid clashing with the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.

Dreweatts are to offer 14 boxes from an important American collection of 18th and 19th century European gold boxes as part of a December 3 sale titled Iconic Jewels & Treasures.

Legendary London jewellery, silver and object d’art dealership SJ Phillips are planning to leave their landmark Mayfair store after almost one-and-a-half centuries.

As part of their latest 20th Century & Decorative Art auction in Stansted Mountfitchet, Sworders sold this still life by the influential American photographer Irving Penn (1917-2009) for £61,000.

Ahead of the 18th staging of ‘Asian Art in London’ (November 5-14) – and against a backdrop of a slowdown in the Chinese economy – we invited senior members of the dealing fraternity to give their views on the market and their expectations for the event.