Decorative arts

China, France and a unifying love of bling: Palace Museum show draws on parallels between cultures

The exhibition in Beijing of 17th- and 18th-century objects from the Forbidden City and the Palace of Versailles will look at how artisans on opposite sides of the world influenced each other

Newly identified William Kent chairs—discovered in a Wiltshire Church—go on show at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge

The two internationally important chairs have been acquired for the reopening of the institution's Founder’s Galleries

Booksreview

Owen Jones, a pioneer of 19th-century ornamentation

An incisive study of the influential designer responsible for the V&A’s ‘Oriental Court’ in the 1860s

Lucie Rie, the Vienna-born émigré who turned British ceramics into an art form

A new exhibition at Kettle’s Yard hopes to cement Rie’s status as one of the UK’s leading 20th-century ceramicists

Turkey-Syria earthquake: the race to save damaged heritage sites

Plus, Alice Neel's largest UK show and a dazzling turn-of-the-century blanket

Hosted by Ben Luke. Produced by David Clack and Aimee Dawson
Sponsored byChristie's
Art marketpreview

From a lively New Deal-era fresco study to an illuminated Rauschenberg edition: our pick of the highlights from February's sales

Plus, a Charles II-era silver-gilt vases, an avant-garde Cuban painting and a rare Tintin comic book cover

Christie’s partners with renowned French antiques dealer Benjamin Steinitz on blockchain-recorded sale

The collaboration with Artory is the first in the history of the decorative arts

Russian oligarch to open private museum in Riga

Institution will house Petr Aven’s collection of Russian and Latvian fine and decorative art

Ceramicsfeature

New film starring Bridgerton's Phoebe Dynevor puts trailblazing Art Deco designer and craftswoman Clarice Cliff back in the spotlight

Best known for her ceramic pieces characterised by bold outlines and a vivid colour palette, Cliff was initially derided by the men who dominated her industry

Disney at the Met—but is it art?

Plus, a new centre to study Matisse at Baltimore Museum of Art and Josef Albers's lithographs at Cristea Roberts in London

Sponsored byChristie's

How Walt Disney’s love of Rococo transformed animation

An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores how the legendary film-maker came to be inspired by French decorative arts

Fit for a king: Exhibition at Victoria and Albert Museum examines Fabergé’s London connections

The major show brings together over 200 treasures, while a never-seen-before group of desk ornaments turns up in Brighton

Theftsnews

French decorative art stolen from 17-century country home in Sussex—for second time

Police appealing for information after five items, including a pair of Sèvres vases and a clock with a bronze figure of Apollo, were taken from Uppark on the South Downs

Your carriage awaits: Beekman Family Coach undergoes live conservation at the New-York Historical Society

Research on the historic piece of decorative art has revealed some surprising evidence that many of its original materials are intact

Twelve down, one to go: epic restoration of 16th-century, English tapestries nears completion after 20 years

Conservation of the panels—bought by Elizabethan noblewoman Bess of Hardwick—has been National Trust's "most lengthy and expensive textile project"

How flower arranging became an art form thanks to Constance Spry’s unique view of the natural world

An exhibition at London’s Garden Museum pays a floral tribute to one of the 20th century’s most colourful and influential florists

Sumptuous contemporary ceramics awaken Baroque palace in Berlin

The richly decorated Schloss Köpenick serves as backdrop to a show of works by three artists whose motifs encompass the natural world and Greek legends

Meet the Hugos, a family of goldsmiths that worked with Picasso and now collaborates with contemporary artists

The third-generation Ateliers Hugo has been casting artists’ creations using ancient techniques from the same workshop in the south of France for nearly 70 years

Obituariesfeature

Remembering Sam Herman, pioneering glass artist and teacher who also won recognition for his paintings and welded-steel sculptures

One of the first pupils of Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he brought the studio glass movement to Britain, and beyond, in the mid-1960s

Emperors, enamel and Easter eggs: how Fabergé and Russian workshops made some of the most desirable objects on earth

Exhibition of around 400 objects at the Moscow Kremlin Museums marks the centenary of the famed jeweller's death

The story of an Irish family’s history and its porcelain service are woven together in this fascinating book

The recovery of a Worcester soft-paste collection sheds light on 18th-century Anglo-Irish culture

A catalogue demonstrates Boucher’s mastery of the 'Chinese' taste

The essays in this book investigate the many facets of this extraordinary 18th-century fashion

This small book tackles for the first time a very large subject: how relics were displayed in the Middle Ages

The way in which relics were presented determined what and how people thought of them, according to this publication of lectures

Brighton Pavilion gets its glitter back as fanciful treasures return on long-term loan from the Queen

More of the startling objects collected by George IV will return from Buckingham Palace in early 2020

Staff quit in droves at Russian museum as ‘starvation wages’ bite

Deputy director’s swingeing salary cuts trigger resignations of around 50 employees at Moscow theatre museum

Catalogue of Colmar Treasure conjures up picture of 14th-century bourgeois Jewish life in France

Hoard of objects loaned by Paris's Musée de Cluny to the Metropolitan Museum of Art tells a complex tale

Booksreview

New catalogue presents virtuosity of Neo-Classicist goldsmith Luigi Valadier

Alvar González-Palacios’s book on the Italian decorator is a peak in his distinguished career

Art marketarchive

Elaborate, traditional pieces sold well at the latest auctions

Chinese and Russian buyers with a taste for the ornate have added a new layer of bidding and are forcing prices ever higher

Art marketarchive

Decorative arts sales shift to Chicago

New York vies with London for nineteenth- and twentieth-century decorative arts sales, but Chicago is coming on quickly