Old Masters

The personal collection of the Frick Collection’s former director has been consigned to Christie’s New York where it is set to lead their Old Masters sale next month.

The Château of Versailles exercised its right of pre-emption to acquire an 18th century painting of its orangerie that was offered at auction.

Dealer and art historian Dr Bendor Grosvenor is fronting a new series called ‘Britain’s Lost Masterpieces’ on BBC Four.

The Tate has acquired its earliest picture by a female artist.

Colnaghi, the venerable London Old Master dealership, will open their new gallery in St James’s next month.

A series of Old Master drawings from the collection of Brian Sewell have had their attributions upgraded in advance of the auction of the late art critic’s collection in London next month. They include two long-unattributed works that have now been ascribed to named 16th century Italian artists.

The Tate has acquired a major portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) from Castle Howard in North Yorkshire after it was accepted in lieu of inheritance tax.

The Bowes Museum has secured funding at a sum of nearly £2.3m to keep an exit-barred painting attributed to the workshop of Dieric Bouts the Elder in the UK.

The Art Institute of Chicago have purchased a rediscovered work by Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547) from London dealers Colnaghi.

‘Lot and his Daughters’ by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) sold for £40m at Christie’s last night, setting a house record for an Old Master painting.

A rare interior scene by Swiss painter Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789) was the top lot at Sotheby’s Old Masters evening sale last night, selling at £3.8m.

An early 17th century self-portrait by the English court painter William Dobson (1611-46) was knocked down at £920,000 at Bonhams’ Old Masters sale today.

The latest themed auction held by Christie’s was their ‘Defining British Art’ evening sale in London. View ATG’s selection of 10 highlights here.

A series of blue-chip consignments from different sectors of the market helped Christie’s ‘Defining British Art’ evening sale in London last night to a £99.5m total including premium. The auction offered paintings by major names including Joshua Reynolds, John Constable, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon but it was a Henry Moore sculpture that led proceedings, selling at £22m.

A painting catalogued as from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens soared past a cautious four-figure estimate to take €1.56m (£1.3m) at a recent Paris auction.

Christie’s have announced that a major landscape by John Constable will be among the works on offer at their Defining British Art sale in London this summer.

Royal Museums Greenwich are attempting to raise £10m to buy a version of The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I. The work currently belongs to descendants of Sir Francis Drake but the institution say that unless the required funds are raised, the painting “could be sold on the open market and even go overseas”.

Christie’s have announced details of their latest ‘themed’ sale – an evening sale of British art which will take place in London on June 30.

An important drawing by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) that changed hands in a major private sale has been temporarily stopped from leaving the UK.

The 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.