Art and antiques news from 2007

BACK in 1936, a Mr Harry Woods decided to refurbish his home, The Gate House in Brighouse, and commissioned a fellow Yorkshireman, working some 50 miles away, to provide interior panelling, window seats and doors, as well as various items of furniture.

The last privately owned copy of Magna Carta will remain in the USA after its $19m (£9.8m) purchase by billionaire David Rubenstein.

At 3ft 21/4in (97cm) long, this exceptionally rare Scottish Highland two-hand sword or claymore dates to the third quarter of the 16th century. So rare is it, in fact, that no other example has appeared on the market in recent years.

Mallams have announced the location of their new saleroom in Oxfordshire.

Souvenir hunters bid for their own slice of history at Savoy's spring clean

This massive silver-gilt shield of Achilles, by Rundell, Bridge & Rundell of London, lost to scholars for the better part of the 20th century, appeared at Sotheby's on December 18 after resurfacing in Belgium.

IT looks likely that the Chelsea Antiques Fair, a landmark fixture and once among the country's most prestigious antiques fairs, is finished.

WHAT looked like yet another Old Master sleeper in the provinces appeared in Gloucestershire on December 7.

London-based organisers Brian and Anna Haughton have changed the dates and venue of their 13th annual International Asian Art Fair in New York.

THIEVES have stolen a collection of war medals Ð including five Victoria Crosses Ð awarded to 12 of New ZealandÕs most highly decorated servicemen. The burglary took place shortly after 1am on December 2 at the Army Museum in Waiouru.

The Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds scenes illustrated here are part of a superb group of 51 miniatures dating from the last years of the 12th century.

Christie’s South Kensington have announced their new programme of Interior sales for 2008 and it is one which shows an ever greater commitment to a retail approach to handling the middle market.

BUSINESS from China increased fivefold for the Fine Arts Society in 2007, helping to bring the company the highest turnover in their 131-year history.

Midlands auctioneers Fieldings and the Clarice Cliff Collectors’ Club (CCCC) are to join forces to hold sales of the avidly collected Art Deco pottery.

THE new year will see a new auction house open in India – with a wide remit to develop the domestic and international markets.

The network of regional salerooms and offices owned by The Fine Art Auction Group is to rebrand under a single name.

There is nothing quite like dying young for genius to acquire immortality. An object lesson in this came with the predictably frantic bidding from the four corners of the world at the sale of some effects once belonging to Maria Callas. The total of €1.3m (£900,000) trebled expectations.

Christie’s held the first auction of spirits in New York since Prohibition on December 8.

DEALERS are being asked to look out for the couple, pictured here, who attempted to steal a tea caddy from Patrick Sandberg Antiques in London’s Kensington Church Street on November 28.

A copy of the earliest printed sea atlas sold for a record £52,000 to a Dutch dealer in an Anderson & Garland sale of November 28.