NEWS All the latest

New shoots The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and Saatchi Gallery continue their partnership this month showcasing new work from leading botanical artists and photographers at a new exhibition.

Subjects depicted vary from Rosulate Violas found in the Andes Mountains to native British trees and hedgerow plants. The RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show is on at the Saatchi Gallery from April 9-29 with free entry for RHS and Saatchi Gallery members.

Above Sydney-based artist Melinda Edstein, Corymbia ficifolia, (Red flowering gum) RHS Botanical Art and Photography Show 2022

Waiting room Great news for collectors of medical antiques with the announcement the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has reopened its museum doors for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The London museum houses a range of objects, including medicine spoons, leech jars and tongue scrapers. For more details go to www.history.rcplondon.ac.uk

Above View of the exhibition RCP Unseen on the gallery, photo courtesy of Matt Chung

INTERVIEW OUTFIT A Giorgio Armani dress as worn by Meghan, Duchess of Sussex for the CBS television special Oprah with Meghan and Harry has gone on display at the Fashion Museum in Bath.

The black and white silk georgette dress, also selected as the museum’s dress of the year 2021, was worn by the duchess at one of the defining pop-cultural moments of last year. The highly-anticipated two-hour television interview aired in nearly 70 countries and drew an estimated 60 million viewers worldwide. The dress can still be bought in the US today, priced $4,700.

Above The Armani dress was worn by the Duchess of Sussex

Mast see For museum fans who enjoy a very hands-on experience, visitors to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich can now climb her famous masts. Plucky visitors will traverse one of the ship’s lower yardarms before reaching the top platform and taking in magnificent views of the London skyscape.

Cutty Sark was built in Dumbarton in 1869, designed to carry tea from China to England as fast as possible.

In 1870, she returned from Shanghai with 1,305,812lb of tea, her speed aided by 11 miles of rigging and 32 sails.

Prices for the climb start at £41 for adults and £26 for children.

Right A plucky museum worker climbs the rigging, © National Maritime Museum, London

30 seconds with... Rachael Osborn-Howard, founder of newly-launched London-based Curated Auctions What made you open a brand new auction house? Believe it or not I saw a gap in the market for a specialist, high-end auction house that would bridge the gap between the excellent service that galleries and dealers offer and the excitement of buying at auction.

What are ‘curated’ auctions? One in which the lots have been either selected or ordered in a meaningful way, where each object is examined, expertly catalogued and researched, with added explanatory and academic footnotes where possible, to provide the bidder with more information; in the same way that a museum or art gallery would curate their exhibits.

How did you start in the business? My first job after university was at a general auctioneers in Kent. I worked in the antiques department, but the auction house was based at a cattle market and also sold property, horses, farm machinery and a number of animals.

What has been your greatest find to date? My greatest success was selling a wax head after the Italian sculptor Medardo Rosso (1858-1928). Although Rosso’s reputation never matched that of Auguste Rodin (18141917) or Umberto Boccioni (1882-1862), he was at the forefront of modern sculpture from the 1880s to the early 1900s.

The piece that was my greatest success – and made £185,000, hammer – was ‘after’

Rosso because it was actually cast by Rosso’s son, after his death. Prior to that sale, his later works had not realised anywhere near that amount at auction.

What do you dream of finding? That would really have to be another piece by Medardo Rosso.

Do you collect? If so, what? Unfortunately, with three small children at home, sadly, I don’t have the time or space for collecting.

Which pieces are selling really well at auction today? Quality and rarity always sells, be it furniture, clocks, paintings or sculpture.

Curated Auctions’ next sale, Montpelier Interiors: Decorative by Design, is on April 7. For more details to to www.curatedauctions.co.uk

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