News

TWO longstanding antique centres, one of them among Britain’s oldest, have bad news: one is to close and the other may have to, as well, if the new owner wants to develop the site for something else.

IT IS a well-known feature of rock and pop memorabilia auctions, that material relating to the Beatles is easier to sell than that relating to other stars. On this basis, the key to assembling a sale of this genre is presumably to fill it with as much Fab Four memorabilia as possible.

THE auction record for Clarice Cliff was sent tumbling last week on May 14 when Christie’s South Kensington sold this May Avenue charger for £34,000, almost double the previous high of £18,000 paid in December 2001 at Phillips for a charger decorated with the Windmill pattern.

ACCORDING to residents of the Trapani region in Sicily, the coral to be found there is the reddest in the world. This may be myth but what certainly is not fabrication is the popularity and desirability of objects made from this striking natural material.

IN the week that former chairman Alfred Taubman was finally released from jail, Sotheby’s announced first quarter total revenues of $47.6m, 4.8 per cent up on the same period last year.

DEALERS are being warned to look out for a well-dressed man using stolen cheques to pay for antiques at fairs.

DUE diligence will effectively become a legal obligation when the Bill aimed at clamping down on the illicit trade in cultural objects becomes law.