Halcyon Sues Sarah-Jane Szikora

The Art Newspaper has reported on intriguing wranglings between the Halcyon Gallery and an artist who worked under contract for 11 years. Sarah-Jane Szikora was receiving only 25% of the achieved price for her artwork and following the end of her contract, she decided to exhibit and sell her work herself at the Arndean Gallery in Cork Street.

A high court injunction stopped the planned exhibition going ahead and Halcyon is now suing the artist for breach of contract. The dispute seems to rest on works undertaken whilst she was still under contract with Halcyon, which they claim they should have had first refusal on.

Find out more about the case from the ArtNewspaper.com.

Police Seek Arab “Playboy” Over Martine Vik Magnussen’s Murder

Last week, beautiful young Norwegian socialite, Martine Vik Magnussen, was murdered and her body left in the basement of a flat in Great Portland Street. She had been partying at the ultra trendy Mayfair club, Maddox – the subject of a fascinating profile in today’s Observer – in the hours before her death with Arab “playboy” Farouk Abdulhak, who it is believed has left the country shortly after on his father’s private jet.

Police are wanting to question Abdulhak in connection with the murder, and the Sunday Telegraph is reporting that in the absence of any extradition arrangements between Yemen and the UK, British prosecutors may be invited to try the young man in his home country, where a death penalty exists.

Afternoon Tea For Two In Mayfair

Afternoon Tea is seen as a quintessentially English tradition, where a pot of tea is served, firstly with thin cut sandwiches, and then followed with a sweet item, like a cake, a pastry or a scone (“Cream tea”). Once upon a time this might have been a daily ritual but now it’s more of a special treat. If you are visiting Mayfair, there’s a few places where you can enjoy an exquisite afternoon tea.

Afternoon tea at Claridge’s, Brook Street, Mayfair
Claridge’s is probably Mayfair’s most famous hotel, and sets the standard for others to follow. Afternoon tea is served in the art deco foyer and in the reading room restaurant. There are over 30 varieties of tea, including the hotel’s own blend. Claridge’s was one of the Tea Guild’s Awards Of Excellence for 2007.

Afternoon tea at Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door Spa
Situated in Davies St, Mayfair, the Red Door Spa from Elizabeth Arden is the perfect place to unwind, relax and be pampered. Following that, enjoy a spectacular cream tea.
Pampering and tea for two at the Elizabeth Arden Spa costs £139 – Find out more

Afternoon tea at Flemings Hotel, Mayfair
Built in 1730, Flemings Hotel in Half Moon street in Mayfair is a superb choice for an afternoon tea with gorgeous sandwiches, and fresh cream scones. It’s ideally placed for shopping before and/or after in Bond street and Oxford Street.

Afternoon tea at the Chesterfield Hotel
Enjoy afternoon tea at one of Mayfair’s premier hotels, in Charles Street. Choose between a Champagne tea (£24.95), traditional afternoon tea (£19.95), Chocolate Lover’s tea (£19,95) or a Devonshire Cream tea (£12.95)

Have you enjoyed an afternoon tea in Mayfair? Use the comments form to share your tips on the best place to visit for a great afternoon tea.

Mayfair Casino Fails To Recover Debts

The Clermont Club in Berkeley Square, owned by Grosvenor Casinos, has failed in its High Court attempt to recover a reported £7million from a prolific gambler.

The gambler, named as Ahmed al-Reyaysa, had gambled £99 million in 18 months, and accued millions of pounds worth of debt. He presented two cheques adding up to £7million, but the cheques weren’t honoured. When Grosvenor Casinos failed to recover the money from al-Reyaysa, now in UAE, they turned their fire on his bank, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

The plaintiffs complained that they only accepted the cheque because NBAD assured their bank, the Natwest, that the payment would be honoured. The High Court rejected their complaint, with Mr Justice Flaux saying in a written statement, “It seems to me inherently improbable that [the NBAD employee] was lying . . . it is much more likely that he meant something slightly different from what [the NatWest employee] meant and understood.”

Related Articles
The Times
Gulf News

Mayfair’s Hedge Funds Feeling The Credit Squeeze?

The UK’s Hedge Fund sector had made its home in Mayfair, and according to reports, they could be facing a wave of closures and job losses as the global credit crunch takes its toll.

The Evening Standard speculates that a double whammy of lenders tightening their credit facilities, and nervous investors seeking to get their money back could have a potentially disastrous effect on many funds.

Read the report in the Evening Standard

Live Property Information Added to About Mayfair

We’re pleased to announce that we have now added live property data to AboutMayfair.co.uk. Using an aggregator service, we are able to present a great selection of properties for sale and for rent from across a wide range of leading estate agents.

Properties For Sale In Mayfair
Properties To Let In Mayfair

Bond Street Thefts – What Can Be Done?

The on

Even if the police do make arrests, the thieves have demonstrated that this is a viable criminal business model and others will take their place.

So what can be done? Are the police giving this the attention it requires? An unsympathetic opinion miht be that the police are better servied concentrating on crimes with a victim than rich shops having expensive items stolen that only rich people can buy.

40th Anniversary Of Anti-Vietnam Protest in Grosvenor Square

March 17th marks the 40th anniversary of the anti vietnam war protests that took place in Grosvenor Square, and where 91 police officers were injured and over 200 protestors were arrested. To mark this important date, there is lots of coverage in the media. Here’s a round up:

Television
South Bank Show, March 16th
This South Bank Show also includes extracts from two never before broadcast interviews from 1968: one with Mick Jagger, shortly after he attended the rally in Grosvenor Square, and another with an angry John Lennon as he responds to attacks from the far left at the end of 1968.

Radio
Desert Island Discs, March 16th
Tariq Ali, historian and author, talks to Kirsty Young including his memories of the protests at Grosvenor Square

Newspapers
Independent: Jagger vs Lennon: London’s riots of 1968 provided the backdrop to a rock’n'roll battle royale
Guardian: Power to the people

Blogosphere
Coming soon – if you know of a related post, please email it. address is in the side bar.

Were you at the protest in Grosvenor Square? Post a comment and share your memories.

Mulberry Bond Street Becomes Gallery Space

Mulberry, the luxury English fashion brand, is transforming its New Bond Street store every month this year, with the help of emerging artists, designers, florists, cake makers and even talented, under privelleged young people from Kids Company.

The series of exhibitions begun last night with the launch party for “Unfolded”: a selection of dramatic, colourful paper sculptures from Gethin Moller. Moller’s works will be on display throughout March and April.

Agyness Deyn and Gethin Moller at the launch party

Jaime Winstone at the “Mulberry Unfolded” Launch

New York’s Met Opera Live at Mayfair Curzon

This Saturday you can enjoy a live screening of the New York Metropolitan Opera’s performance of Peter Grimes, at the Curzon cinema in Mayfair. The event is taking place in New York and being beamed around the world to a cinematic audience, who can enjoy the performance in brilliant HD. The performance will start at 5.30pm in the UK.

This is the first in a series of live operas being shown at the cinema in Curzon Street – visit the website for more information on upcoming events.

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