UK

The art and antiques trade associations are in a race against time in their bid to challenge aspects of the government’s planned ivory ban. The bill was published last week, earlier than expected.

UK antiques portal Online Galleries has significantly increased subscription costs, causing many dealers to complain of steep price rises.

A major test of the market for the best of British furniture will take place in London this summer when Christie’s stages a sale dedicated to Thomas Chippendale.

The emperor Qianlong collected Western clocks throughout his 60-year reign, building upon the interest of his grandfather Kangxi.

Well-provenanced Chinese monochromes dominated bidding at recent Asian art sales across the UK regions.

London auction house Dix Noonan Webb is launching a stand-alone banknotes department and expanding into the next-door premises.

Marvel comics in considerable numbers were a feature of a May 10 sale held by Golding Young & Mawer (20% buyer’s premium).

A new event from Penman Fairs steps into the gap that represents the calm before the storm of the London summer season.

Connaught Brown’s upcoming exhibition is its fourth to focus on the sculpture of modern Spanish artist Baltasar Lobo (1910-93).

Two contemporary exhibitions in London next month feature artists with an interest in the imagery and techniques of the past.

It has been a generally encouraging spring at the UK rostrum. A latest look back at half-a-dozen auctions at major rooms reveals strong demand across the board of interests, and across the centuries to near the present day.

An early work by Yiannis Tsarouchis (1910-89) topped Bonhams’ Greek Sale in New Bond Street on May 2, selling above estimate at £120,000 (plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium).

A trademark bronze sculpture by Lynn Chadwick (1914-2003) was the best-seller at a Modern and Contemporary Art & Design auction held by Chorley’s (20% buyer’s premium) at Prinknash Abbey Park in Gloucestershire.

Last year the UK’s regional salerooms were treated to a generous handful of five- and six-figure bids for unappreciated masterworks of Aboriginal and Oceanian art – a Maori putorino or bugle flute sold to a French dealer for £140,000 at John Nicholson’s of Haslemere among them.

From dealers Charlie Bates and Matthew Nellist of Jeffrey and Day comes a story about Jean-Baptiste Godin, a 19th century French industrialist and enlightened innovator.