London

Nicholas Somers has been installed as Master of the Company of Arts Scholars for 2013/14.

A UK-based businessman has been arrested on suspicion of looting Egyptian artefacts after he consigned several items into a Christie’s antiquities sale in London.

The inaugural sale held by new London-based musical instrument auctioneers Ingles & Hayday generated a £2.26m total from 150 lots.

A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone containing personal annotations and illustrations by author J.K. Rowling’s fetched £150,000 at a charity auction held at Sotheby’s in London last night.

Dreweatts will be conducting the first auction of a complete RHS Chelsea garden during this year’s flower show.

Some of the galleries affected by redevelopment in Cork Street, Mayfair, have been given hope that they can move back once the work is completed.

Standing in the same spot where he had placed the winning £3.25m bid for an Egyptian statue of Isis six months before, London dealer Daniel Katz was again in action at Christie’s South Kensington’s latest antiquities sale.

Last week was a busy one for glass and ceramics in the London rooms with five auctions taking place over the space of 48 hours and some bullish prices for top pieces.

A single pearl-drop earring worn by Charles I at his execution in 1649, a maharaja’s coat richly embroidered with pearls c.1870, and a necklace of cultured pearls given to Marilyn Monroe by Joe DiMaggio in 1954 – all part of an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum this autumn.

One of the highlights of the latest raft of Islamic auctions in London was an unusual half-moon-shaped 10th/11th century granite temple step from Sri Lanka which had spent years in a Devon garden.

The Mishneh Torah was withdrawn from a recent Sotheby’s sale at the eleventh hour after vendors Michael and Judy Steinhard struck a private treaty sale with The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

GALLERY NEWS – Jamie Rountree of Rountree Fine Art and Oliver Swann of Tryon Gallery have announced that they will merge their two companies under the new name of Rountree Tryon.

“An armadillo for you, from Jonathan Ross,” says the courier as he returns a box midway through my interview with Alexis Turner.

Featuring only 22 lots, Sotheby’s latest sale of Orientalist art was a small affair but one that definitely packed a big punch.

The rising stars and the long-established businesses of the antiques trade were both recognised at a double awards ceremony hosted by the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea last week

Here is a selection of photos of some of the rising stars and the long-established businesses of the antiques trade who won honours at a double awards ceremony hosted by the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair in Battersea last week.

‘Masterpiece London’ has announced a link with Hong Kong’s ‘Fine Art Asia’ this year, with the incorporation of a Hong Kong Pavilion at the fourth edition of the London fair from June 26-July 3.

The latest blow to hit antiques dealers in Portobello Road has left them looking for the secure parking needed to run their businesses.

“Sales like this do not come along often,” said Sotheby’s specialist David Macdonald after the auction of Mark Birley’s collection from his South Kensington home.

This 15-star American War Naval Jack used in the Anglo-American War of 1812, is thought to be the first of its kind to be offered at auction.