Latest News Articles by Alex Capon
Lord Lucan’s bounced cheques appear at auction
04 April 2016The man himself may have disappeared in 1974 but a series of cheques showing Lord Lucan’s spiralling gambling debts have now emerged and will be offered at auction later this month.
Early chess pieces come to Sotheby’s from seminal collection of German grandmaster
01 April 2016An important collection of early chess pieces will be offered as part of Sotheby’s Islamic sale in London on April 20.
Veronese drawing blocked from export after £15m sale
31 March 2016An important drawing by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) that changed hands in a major private sale has been temporarily stopped from leaving the UK.
TEFAF 2016: final reports indicate solid sales overall
24 March 2016The 29th staging of TEFAF Maastricht will go down as a good edition of the fair with dealers reporting decent sales overall and the changes made for this year’s event meeting general approval among the standholders.
Ravilious watercolour leads Sworders’ dedicated Modern British art auction
24 March 2016An Eric Ravilious (1903-42) watercolour has emerged at Sworders of Essex and will be among the star lots at their first dedicated Modern British Art sale next month.
Rediscovered copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio heads to auction
21 March 2016A previously unrecorded copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio has emerged at Christie’s. Estimated at £800,000-1.2m, it will lead a specially-staged auction in May comprising just four lots – a copy of each of the first four Shakespeare folios.
Gluck’s Sussex landscape brings demand at Mallams
18 March 2016Among the lots drawing competition at the latest picture sale held by Mallams of Oxford was a hilltop view of the Sussex landscape by Hannah Gluckstein (1895-1978).
Major Rubens to headline London summer sales
16 March 2016An important work by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) will be among the leading lots on offer at this summer’s auction series in London. Lot and his Daughters from c.1613-14 will be the centrepiece of Christie’s newly launched ‘curated’ week of sales branded Classic Week in July.
TEFAF 2016: dealers report museum purchases among string of sales on opening day
11 March 2016The aisles were busy at the opening of the 29th edition of TEFAF Maastricht 2016 and a decent stream of sales to private buyers added to the buzz created by some significant museum acquisitions.
10 shots of the TEFAF preview
10 March 2016With the preview of TEFAF 2016 now underway, ATG gives you a snapshot around the stands of the fair.
TEFAF Report shows 7% fall in global art sales as Chinese market takes hit
09 March 2016Global art sales fell during 2015 with the most significant a decline coming in the Chinese market.
Wyndham to leave as more staff exit Sotheby’s
07 March 2016The shake-up at Sotheby’s continued last week as more key senior employees – including Henry Wyndham – depart the company.
Steinway grand piano in high demand at Sting’s £3m Christie’s sale
29 February 2016A Steinway grand piano sold for a double-estimate £95,000 on February 24 when Christie’s King Street held a £3m, 146-lot sale of items from the former Queen Anne’s Gate home of musician Sting and his wife Trudie Styler.
£50m collected in decade of Artist’s Resale Right
24 February 2016A decade on since Artist’s Resale Right (ARR) was launched in the UK, over £50m has been collected from auctions and dealers for artists and their heirs.
Lukewarm totals at London Contemporary art series
15 February 2016The Contemporary art market survived better than many had expected at the London auction series last week.
Wright of Derby grotto scene makes £550,000 to aid refugee crisis
14 December 2015Among the works drawing interest at the latest round of Old Master and British Paintings sales in London was Joseph Wright of Derby’s (1734-97) ‘A grotto in the gulf of Salerno...’.
Russian art sales suffer from flatter demand
07 December 2015The latest Russian art sales in London posted the weakest results in over a decade as a drop-off in both demand and supply brought a further downturn in the market.
Major lots help generate over $2bn total in New York auction fortnight
16 November 2015The large sums of money changing hands at the top end of the Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art market was underlined at the latest auctions in New York.
Modigliani tops Christie’s ‘Artist’s Muse’ sale in New York at $152m
12 November 2015Christie’s latest cross-category sale entitled The Artist’s Muse set the second highest ever auction price for a work of art when Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché (Reclining nude) sold at $152m (£104.8m).
Lichtenstein’s Nurse sets artist’s record
12 November 2015A new auction record came for American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) when 'Nurse' was knocked down at $85m (£58.6m) at Christie’s cross-category sale entitled The Artist’s Muse earlier this week.