Latest News Articles by Alex Capon
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.
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.
Vendor left ‘speechless’ after ‘Ben Nicholson’ mural withdrawn from Lay’s auction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 led to the work being withdrawn at the last minute from an auction in Penzance.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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Dreweatts to offer Turner’s only known oil sketch from Liber Studiorum project
21 May 2024Two works by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) have emerged from a private collection and will be offered at Newbury saleroom Dreweatts on June 12.
Bidders on red alert for Dod’s mystery girl
20 May 2024A bidding battle broke out at Bellmans in West Sussex for an early and engaging portrait by Dod Procter (1890-1972), setting the second highest auction price ever recorded for the artist.
Carrington work sets British-born female artist record
20 May 2024Setting a record for any British-born female artist at auction, a Surrealist painting by Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) drew a lengthy bidding battle at Sotheby’s New York on May 15, taking the artist into a new league commercially.
Art innovator Richardson’s collection comes to auction
20 May 2024Marion Richardson (1892-1946), a pioneer of the child art movement, was described as ‘one of the most influential art innovators of our time’.
Actor Peter Barkworth also had a private passion for collecting
20 May 2024Despite Peter Barkworth’s very public profile his art collecting was a much more personal matter
Leonora Carrington’s surrealist ‘masterpiece’ sets major auction record at Sotheby's
18 May 2024Setting a record for any British-born female artist at auction, a surrealist painting by Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) drew a lengthy bidding battle at Sotheby’s New York on May 15, taking the artist into a new league commercially.
Early Dod Procter portrait turns heads at West Sussex auction
16 May 2024A bidding battle broke out at Bellmans in West Sussex yesterday for an early and engaging portrait by Dod Procter (1890-1972), setting the second highest auction price ever recorded for the artist.
Rare work by English surrealist Pulham appears at Newcastle auction
13 May 2024A painting by the early English surrealist Peter Rose Pulham (1910-1956) will be offered at Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland later this month.
How Whistler became a prolific and powerful printmaker
13 May 2024When James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) arrived in Paris in 1855 determined to pursue a career as an artist, printmaking was experiencing a revival.