Latest News Articles by Gabriel Berner
Christie’s change antiquities schedule
18 November 2015Christie’s have announced major changes to their antiquities sales calendar in London and New York.
Blue john bonanza at Fellows in Birmingham
19 August 2015Quite possibly the largest sale of Derbyshire blue john ever held is going under the hammer at Fellows of Birmingham.
Top cellar: restituted Welby salt brings £850,000
23 July 2015It was included in one of the Ashmolean Museum’s greatest bequests but this magnificent salt cellar was subsequently discovered to be Nazi loot. Recently restituted, it soared to £850,000 at auction.
Luba lights up Christie’s Exceptional sale at £5.4m
13 July 2015This striking 2ft 1½in (64.4cm) high Luba figural bowstand made c.1880 by the Warua Master was the runaway star of London’s high season sales.
Marc Newson’s Lockheed Lounge makes record for a living designer at £2.1m
06 May 2015The Lockheed Lounge by Australian designer Marc Newson beat its own record as the most expensive work to sell at auction by a living designer when it fetched £2.1m at Phillips in London.
Sweet scent for best of 18th century France
02 May 2015Briefly owned by Louis XVI, who intended them for the Louvre, this 13in (33.5cm) high pair of fine gilt-bronze-mounted kakiemon porcelain and Egyptian porphyry brûle parfums sold for £1.65m at Sotheby’s in London this week.
Museum acquires Dickens’ desk
21 April 2015The writing desk and chair used by Charles Dickens as he penned a number of his later classics have been bought by a museum based at the author’s former central London home.
Christie’s withdraw lots after antiquities alert
14 April 2015Four lots were withdrawn at the eleventh hour by Christie’s last week amid fresh allegations in the media over illicit antiquities at auction.
Sotheby’s to auction Castle Howard contents
13 April 2015A stellar consignment of paintings and antiques from Castle Howard will be offered at Sotheby’s this summer.
Your starter for £2.2m…
07 April 2015Over 700 lots from West Horsley Place in Surrey, the home of the late Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe, are going under the hammer at Sotheby’s in May.
Plaques head to auction in Leeds
23 March 2015Discovered in a pile of objects waiting to be tipped at a routine house clearance, a pair of large ceramic plaques will be offered at Gary Don in Leeds this week.
Space photos star in the saleroom
13 March 2015“Most of us will never experience space, which explains why space-flown items are in such high demand. Their travels imbue them with an almost mystical aura.”
Christie’s South Kensington at 40
09 March 2015Christie’s South Kensington celebrated their 40th anniversary year with a 1970s themed party at their Old Brompton Road saleroom. Current staff, former employees and others connected with CSK turned out in droves on March 4 to raise a glass to the auction house.
The best-dressed man in County Kilkenny
05 March 2015This late 19th century Native American outfit proved the highlight of Fonsie Mealy’s latest sale in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, when it sold for €320,000 (£246,150).
The £52,000 Penzance purr-chase
25 February 2015This finely modelled ancient Egyptian bronze cat head with original large gold hoop earrings was the uncontested star of David Lay’s latest auction in Penzance, Cornwall.
Michelangelo claim: there’s more to come say Fitzwilliam
16 February 2015The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge have promised to reveal more evidence backing the attribution to Michelangelo of a pair of bronze figures of two nude males riding panthers.
Sale shows the bulldog spirit
24 December 2014Personal effects of Sir Winston Churchill, including the morocco dispatch box pictured here, were among the highlights of Sotheby’s highly publicised estate sale of his youngest child, the late Mary Soames.
Thangka brings new £27m Asian art high
02 December 2014Among the most important Asian works of art to come to market in the modern collecting era, an Imperial Ming dynasty embroidered silk thangka sold for HK$310m (£27m) at a Christie’s latest Chinese art series in Hong Kong.
Fangs very much – an unexpected £88,000
19 November 2014This 17in (43cm) Fang bieri guardian palmwood figure from Gabon in West Africa set a house record at Netherhampton Salerooms in Salisbury when it sold for £88,000.
Soames auction sheds light on Churchill
10 October 2014Paintings and objects from the estate of the late Mary Soames, the youngest daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, are to be sold at Sotheby’s in London.