UK

Masterpiece London opened last week at The Royal Hospital Chelsea to a buzzing crowd of 7000 on preview day. Now in its fifth edition and a much-anticipated event in the London summer season, this was the highest visitor number to date.

One of Claude Monet’s paintings from his celebrated Water Lilies series led a slightly mixed round of Impressionist & Modern art auctions in London last week.

The school curriculum needs to focus more on arts and crafts if the creative industries are to have a future in the UK. So says the director of education at West Dean in West Sussex.

The new Chinese representative at John Nicholson’s auctioneers has set out a seven-point plan for how to connect properly with Chinese clients.

This postcard sketch by the Chapman Brothers is one of a large number created by well-known figures in art, sport, music TV and film to raise money for Action Against Cancer and the Brain Tumor Charity Silas Pullen Fund.

Popular demand has prompted IACF to trial a two-day part-weekend antiques and collectors’ fair next month at the RAF Swinderby site.

The Roman artist Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781-1835) is best known as a prolific engraver, selling to tourists his prints portraying the everyday life and costumes of characters encountered in and around the Piazza della Rotonda.

Seventeenth century Dublin trefid spoons are extremely scarce. Last year a single rat-tailed example by Andrew Gregory, 1685, sold for €9000 at Adams of Dublin.

Consigned by the debt-ridden Delaware Museum of Art, Isabella and the Pot of Basil by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was the top lot of Christie’s sale of Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite and British Impressionist art in London last week.

NAVA have announced their new Autumn Forum will take place on Thursday, September 25.

Knocking others off their perch, Salisbury’s Woolley & Wallis improved upon their own auction record for Martin Brothers with the £75,000 sale of this bird jar to Gloucestershire British art pottery dealers AD Antiques.

The name Æthelberht and the title REX on an Anglo-Saxon penny just sold in London may provide a vital clue to a royal murder.

The year 1737 was something of an annus horribilis for George II.

Westminster City Council will set out their detailed vision for protecting the art trade in Mayfair by the beginning of next year.

The earliest dated picture by the 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (1632-75), one of only two works by the artist left in private hands, will be a highlight of Christie’s Old Masters auction in London next month.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey is to headline the first Art Business Conference, a new event scheduled for September 4 in London that will tackle key issues for trade professionals.

When it comes to 20th century sporting pictures, there is no bigger name than Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959). Earlier this month, a sale at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury sale saw the consignment of certainly one of the more notable works by the Mendham, Suffolk-born artist to have appeared in the regions over recent times.

“They think it’s all over... it is now!”

The most highly regarded piece of Chinese porcelain offered during the recent round of Asian sales was seen in Edinburgh where Lyon & Turnbull sold this blue and white dragon charger for £355,000.

A painting of a well-known location in Manchester by L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) led the latest sale of Modern & Post-War British Art at Sotheby’s.