London

King Richard III is the Marmite Monarch. You love him or you hate him. On one hand he is regarded as a monster, on the other as misunderstood and unfairly maligned.

As the market changes, salerooms come and go. Few have come and are soon to go like Christie’s South Kensington. But the forces behind the impending demise of the once-trailblazing auction house have been in the works for some time.

Christie’s is proposing to close its auctions in South Kensington.

Lord Ashcroft has added another Victoria Cross to his mightily impressive and ever-growing collection. He bought the VC awarded to Yorkshire hero George Sanders for bravery at the first day of the Somme in 1916 and other honours Sanders had earned, including a Military Cross.

An upcoming exhibition at M&L Fine Art features the ceramics and sculpture of Lucio Fontana, the artist best remembered for his slash paintings.

A bronze Etruscan statuette that was stolen from Berlin’s Antikensammlung during the Second World War has been returned after the intervention of London dealers Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch.

New to the summer calendar this year is ‘A Collectors' Paradise,’ a multi-dealer selling exhibition held over the three floors of the Brian Haughton Gallery in St James’s.

A shimmering floral landscape by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was knocked down at £42.5m at Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist & Modern art in London on March 1.

Christie’s is looking to repeat its success by making a bumper price for a piece of medieval tomb sculpture in London this summer.

It ain’t rocket science: rarity adds value. While various other factors come into play, the number of a particular item in existence is a clear driver of auction prices, and in militaria the defence of Rorke’s Drift is a classic example.

The annual summer initiative ‘Brown’s London Art Weekend’, showcasing exhibitions, talks and tours in West End art galleries and auction houses, has announced a major rebranding and partnership.

A new art advisory group has been formed to help ease the pitfalls of buying and selling art and antiques.

The UK government has passed the third reading of the Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Bill, opposing amendments called for by the art and antiques trade.

Financier Falcon Fine Art has completed its first art lending deal in Belgium. The firm helped a collector in Belgium borrow against the value of a collection of 19th century “museum-quality” paintings and sculpture.

Police are appealing for information after a painting by British artist Mary Potter was stolen at a recent fair in London.

The London dealer Godson and Coles of Fulham Road has concluded the sale of this George II period brass-inlaid mahogany metamorphic table to Temple Newsam House.

A French collection comprising 70-lots documenting historical attempts at achieving flight will be offered at Bonhams on March 1.

Shop owners in London and the south of England are facing a significant increase in business rates when bills arrive in April.

The antiquarian book trade has suffered one of its biggest-ever thefts after an audacious robbery in west London.