UK

More than half a million pounds in fines have been issued to art dealers and auction houses by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in the six months to April 2025.

Works by two of the biggest names in art history put in a strong performance at the latest series of Old Master auctions in London.

London’s Treasure House Fair concluded last week after a seven-day run and many sales.

A rare poster heralding the birth of the British punk movement hammered for a massive £43,000 (plus 24% buyer’s premium) at Omega Auctions on July 1.

A fine example of the Libertas Americana silver medal is estimated to fetch between £50,000-80,000 at Anderson & Garland’s Fine Silver and Objects of Vertu auction in Newcastle on July 22.

Almost singlehandedly, Sir Laurence Whistler (1912-2000) revived the tradition of British diamond point engraving in the post-war era. His stippled glass goblets were particularly innovative: engraved on both sides of the bowl with views of the English countryside, they create an illusion of perspective.

A rarity at a recent Woolley & Wallis (26% buyer’s premium) ceramics and glass sale was a late 18th century Wedgwood basalt intaglio seal, featuring a profile portrait of the notorious American spy Captain Nathan Hale (1755-76) beside the reversed inscription 'My Country!!!'.

Lyon & Turnbull’s (26% buyer’s premium) sale marking the centenary of the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes - the event that later gave Art Deco its name - included a Lalique glass vase that was shown at the event. Quatre Figurines Femmes Formant Soutien, standing 6½in (17cm) high and modelled as a quartet of crouching female nudes supporting an ovoid bowl, was made using the cire perdue (or lost wax) technique.

The first of six new episodes of the BBC’s Fake or Fortune? airing on Monday, July 21 features a picture of a summer garden bought for £130 at Ardingly Antiques Fair.

James Braxton is celebrating the launch of his second book. The antiques specialist published his first book last year.

Dealer’s art and antiques being dispersed at auction includes Newlyn School works and Clarice Cliff

Two auctions held in the region underline demand for the locally produced ceramics

A collection of ceramics by the Hanley-born pottery painter Arthur Holland (1896 1979) comes for sale at Potteries Auctions in Newcastle-under-Lyme on July 12.

Reg Cooper, the dealer and former fair organiser, has died aged 86.

Chelsea Red Anchor period ‘Hans Sloane’ plates are named with reference to the royal physician, traveller, and natural historian who helped transform the Chelsea Physic Garden into a centre of botanical knowledge during the Enlightenment.

A French-inspired fleamarket that was launched in June in the small Shropshire town of Whitchurch proved such a success it is now running monthly.

Among the great Beilby discoveries of recent times was the emergence - from two separate sources across 14 years - of six small firing glasses decorated in red, yellow and white enamel with Masonic emblems.

Ceramics expert’s collection sold at auction included notable pieces made on Merseyside but also a Limehouse cup that proved very popular with bidders