UK

THE latest round of Russian art sales in London put in a consistent performance as auctioneers’ totals again benefited from a series of £1m-plus prices. Demand, however, remained selective with selling rates noticeably patchy.

THE Guildford Riverside Saleroom is to reopen under the banner of Wellers Fine Art Auctions after a seven-year absence. The firm, who had a presence in the town until ten years ago, will also continue to operate from Chertsey.

THIS bronze Zinfandel by equestrian sculptor Adrian Jones (1845-1938) was stolen earlier this month from a private house in Surrey.

The OED lists ‘sphairistike’ as the name under which a certain Englishman, Major Walter Wingfield patented the equipment and rules for a new outdoor racquet and ball game in 1874.

DEALERS at Grays antiques centre in central London are fearing further damage to business as the massive Crossrail project at Bond Street enters a new stage this summer.

ANOTHER major price for L.S. Lowry (1887-1976) came courtesy of Lyon & Turnbull's latest evening sale in Edinburgh, as The Hawker's Cart sold at £550,000 to a private buyer south of the border.

A VERY large, hand-drawn plan of the Titanic, used in the official inquiry after it sank in 1912, has sold for £220,000 at Wiltshire auction house, Henry Aldridge & Son.

Supporters of the Save The Portobello Market Campaign called for a referendum on a directly elected mayor for Kensington and Chelsea.

A THEFT of a rhino head from a museum in Surrey is thought to have been motivated by the hugely valuable trade in rhino horn.

ED Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, has appointed London art dealer Lowell Libson as a member of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest.

IT is symptomatic of the changes in the Poole pottery market that the joint top selling lot in a large specialist sale last month was a 1960s rimmed dish.

A house clearer has won a High Court battle to regain possession of a pair of medieval embroideries thought to be worth millions after a longstanding dispute with a fine art specialist.

THE latest Modern British art sale at Christie's in London set a series of new benchmarks for the sector.

GLASGOW acquired a new auction house last month when Mulberry Bank Auctions officially opened with a drinks reception on the evening of May 20.

THE organisers of the UK’s largest contemporary art fair, Frieze, are launching two new events for 2012.

SALISBURY auctioneers Woolley & Wallis saw two more lots make over £1m last week.

Just as traders in Portobello were celebrating victory in the Admiral Vernon dispute, they heard that the Good Fairy arcade across the road had been closed as the freeholders, Carmac Portobello Ltd, had gone into administration.

THOMAS Grant Dixon formed his Worcester collection from 1940-70. This discerning collector was a great friend of H. Rissik Marshall, the famed Worcester collector and author whose collection now resides in the Ashmolean at Oxford.

STALLHOLDERS throughout Portobello’s arcades planned to don ‘Marion’ masks last Saturday in a mass protest over the latest turn of events in the market.

CHINESE works of art dominated this month's Asian sales series in London but among the most successful auctions last week was Bonhams' dispersal of the second part of the Edward Wrangham (1928-2009) collection.