Latest News Articles by Alex Capon

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Major names highlight Christie’s Contemporary art sale

12 February 2015

Christie’s evening sale post-war & Contemporary art in London posted a decent performance with some of the biggest names in the market headlining the auction.

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Sotheby’s set £27m Richter record

11 February 2015

A large abstract painting by Gerhard Richter drew dramatic bidding last night and led Sotheby’s Contemporary art evening sale when it was knocked down at £27m.

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Miró brings uplift at Christie’s

06 February 2015

A series of works by Joan Miró gave a major boost to Christie’s latest evening auction of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist art.

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Monet helps Sotheby’s to new high for modern art sale

04 February 2015

Five works by Claude Monet helped Sotheby’s set a new high for a London auction of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist art last night.

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Upgraded Constable sells for $4.5m in New York

30 January 2015

This version of John Constable’s (1776-1837) celebrated painting ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’ sold for $4.5m (£3.1m) at Sotheby’s Old Master sale in New York yesterday. It was an oil sketch with quite a backstory.

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Sotheby’s fend off Caravaggio claim

16 January 2015

A High Court judge has dismissed a claim made against Sotheby’s surrounding the sale of a disputed version of Caravaggio’s ‘The Card Sharps’.

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£27m record for Mr Turner at Sotheby’s

08 December 2014

The outstanding lot of the latest Old Master auction series in London, ‘Rome, from Mount Aventine’ by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), was knocked down at £27m at Sotheby’s evening sale, setting a record price for the artist.

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O’Keeffe sets $39.5m female artist record

24 November 2014

New York has witnessed some spectacular auction prices of late and another came last week as ‘Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1’ by Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) was knocked down at $39.5m (£26.3m) at Sotheby’s American art sale.

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Warhol’s Elvis helps Contemporary art frenzy reach record levels

17 November 2014

Christie’s latest evening sale of Contemporary art in New York posted a premium-inclusive total of $852.9m (£557.4m), a new record for any auction.

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Giacometti’s Chariot leads the charge at Sotheby’s $370m record sale

10 November 2014

Works by Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Alberto Giacometti and Amedeo Modigliani were the highlights of the latest series of Impressionist & Modern art series in New York.

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Caravaggio case – Sotheby’s come out fighting

03 November 2014

The opening salvos have been fired in the court case centred on the version of Caravaggio’s ‘The Card Sharps’ which sold at Sotheby’s in 2006.

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Frieze week auctions set £197m total

23 October 2014

The Contemporary art auctions staged during London’s Frieze week showed no signs of letting up as the bidding took little account of the stockmarkets that were nosediving at the same time.

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A fitting memorial at CSK

09 September 2014

This memorial design featuring a magnificent peacock resting on a bier and surrounded by myrtle leaves was painted by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones in 1886 following the tragic death of Laura Lyttelton, a friend of the artist who died a few days after giving birth to a son.

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Ravilious discovery among highlights in the regions

29 August 2014

With the new auction season kicking off in September, plenty of pictures will be going under the hammer over the next few weeks and, naturally, there are a few stars that have come to light across the regions.

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Sotheby’s auction totals up but private sales fall

18 August 2014

Sotheby’s figures for the first half of 2014 saw a significant increase in auction totals help them to a 20% rise in operating income compared to the equivalent period last year.

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Artist’s studio records top hits with scenes of 1930s funfair

15 August 2014

When dispersing the contents of an artist’s studio, there is always the question of whether to sell the works all in one go or drip them onto the market over a longer period of time.

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Matania lots give boost to Yorkshire sale

17 July 2014

Twenty lots comprising works by Anglo-Italian artist Fortunino Matania will be offered at the upcoming fine art sale being held by Tennants of Leyburn, North Yorkshire.

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Old Master series boosted by sale of key collections

14 July 2014

While two of the top prices of the London auctions last week came for ancient sculptures – the £14m Old Kingdom Egyptian limestone statue at Christie’s and the £8.3m for the Roman marble of Aphrodite (c.41-54AD) at Sotheby’s – there was also a bumper run of Old Master and British picture sales.

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Bacon triptych tops contemporary sales

07 July 2014

The total from last week’s Contemporary art auctions in London may have been a far cry from the record New York series in May where $1.57bn (£975m) of art changed hands, but there was still plenty of action as the market continued on its current buoyant course.

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Mixed fortunes but Monet in the money at flagship London art sales

30 June 2014

One of Claude Monet’s paintings from his celebrated Water Lilies series led a slightly mixed round of Impressionist & Modern art auctions in London last week.