Latest News Articles by Alex Capon
Migrant artists on the move at Sotheby’s
17 June 2024The summer exhibition running at Sotheby’s this year focuses on works by artists who were born overseas but passed through or settled in the UK permanently.
Paper chasers: British Museum shows off recent print purchases
17 June 2024The British Museum never stands still when it comes to acquiring works on paper, as a new exhibition showcasing purchases over the past 20 years demonstrates
Indian bidding lifts Dreweatts picture sale as two works make over £200,000
14 June 2024Two pictures by British artists with strong Indian connections sold for record sums at Dreweatts after drawing interest from sub-Continent.
Chardin still life raises bar for an Old Master in France
13 June 2024Christie’s set a record for any Old Master sold in France when a still-life by Jean Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) made €23m (£19.4m) at an auction in Paris on June 12, selling to a European collector.
Famous 44lb carp dubbed ‘Clarissa’ emerges for sale
13 June 2024For collectors of cased fish, it doesn’t come much better than this.
Jobs to be cut across the big London auction firms
10 June 2024Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams are all undertaking rounds of redundancies.
Bidders go wild for Tunnicliffe birds shown on the move
10 June 2024A picture of oystercatchers flew way past the estimate at a recent Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) sale in Macclesfield, Cheshire.
Whether country or town views, Newlyn artists are setting the scene
10 June 2024More paintings on offer in Dorest saleroom from the Cornish ‘school’ show the market strength
Artist Kathleen Scale's work weighed up by a fresh audience
10 June 2024The opening section of Duke’s latest Art & Design post 1880 sale was devoted to the ‘forgotten’ artist Kathleen Muriel Scale (1913-2006).
Newcastle saleroom sets auction record for surrealist Pulham
06 June 2024Pictures by the early English surrealist Peter Rose Pulham (1910-1956) are relatively rare at auction but the interest garnered by a few works that emerged recently suggested they are on the rise commercially.
Vendor left ‘speechless’ after ‘Ben Nicholson’ mural withdrawn from Lay’s auction
03 June 2024A row over the attribution of a ‘Ben Nicholson’ mural painting that appeared on the BBC’s 'Fake or Fortune?' led to the work being withdrawn at the last minute from an auction in Penzance.
Interview: how a museum raises funds from auction guarantees
03 June 2024The existence of third-party guarantees has been a notable feature in the auction market for more than two decades now. Indeed, it is now the most common form of guarantee issued by salerooms, in particular on high-value artworks.
Museum makes $500,000 from auction guarantees
03 June 2024A museum in the US has revealed that it made $500,000 by acting as a third-party guarantor at high-profile sales.
Striking Victorian seascape fetches over 20 times estimate
31 May 2024When the industrialist Fred Cooper and his family moved into The Grange in Perton in 1969, the South Staffordshire country house came already furnished with a notable collection.
British Museum reveals further stolen items recovered
27 May 2024The British Museum has recovered a further tranche of stolen and missing objects from its collection but over 800 items are still missing.
Family portraits star as art amassed by an earl goes under the hammer
27 May 2024“It was no surprise that a single-owner sale of noble provenance and with royal connections was such a success”, said Thomas Jenner-Fust.
Marquess shows it’s not just female Massot appeal
27 May 2024When it comes to the portraits of the Swiss artist Firmin Massot (1766- 1849), it tends to be depictions of young female sitters shown either full length of ‘jusqu’aux genoux’ (as far as the knees) – a format he often favoured – that attract the most attention commercially.
Sotheby’s announces details of latest summer show
24 May 2024Sotheby’s is hosting an exhibition in London this summer featuring 12 works loaned from museums. All the works are by artists who were born overseas but passed through or settled in the UK permanently.
British Museum recovers more stolen works but over 800 objects still missing
24 May 2024The British Museum has recovered a further tranche of stolen and missing objects from its collection.
Sotheby’s new pricing structure comes into effect
23 May 2024Auction house reduces buyers’ and sellers’ fees but rivals are yet to follow suit