News

THE Society of Fine Art Auctioneers celebrated its silver jubilee at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in Knightsbridge last week, with chairman Chris Ewbank announcing a surge in membership.

UK: THE trial of Dennis Yates, the Nottingham-based radio specialist accused of blackmail and receiving stolen goods after an Enigma code machine was stolen from Bletchley Park Museum, may be delayed by a defence plea to move the venue.

SWEDEN: AN unrestored canvas by the American painter Julius Leblanc Stewart (1855-1919) of two fashionably dressed ladies meeting on the deck of a yacht on the Côte d’Azur inspired predictably intense levels of demand when it came under the hammer at the Stockholm rooms of Stockholms Auctionsverk (17.5 per cent buyer’s premium) on May 22.

AS Roman generals used to parade the heathen idols of vanquished tribes before the populae urbis, so this monumental bronze figure of Lenin, pictured, will provide an entertaining diversion for the guests at Maurice Saatchi’s garden parties in Sussex this summer.

UK: THE 900-lot sale held at Ambrose (12.5% buyer’s premium) at Loughton, Essex, on May 10-11 was an event for bidders on budgets, with only three lots going into four figures. But there was active bidding, with a 75 per cent success rate, and the best sellers were all of interest.

UK: THE Shropshire auctioneers Walker Barnett & Hill marked a first with their sale on May 1 by giving it a fully illustrated catalogue that was also posted on the Web.

UK: A TAKE-UP of 70 per cent at this Locke & England Midlands sale on May 3 was evidence of the selectivity of buyers when it comes to furniture in the lower price ranges but there were some sound enough individual sales.