Auctioneers

Among 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.

Christie’s New York are offering the 1962 Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to Dr James D. Watson, one of the world’s greatest living scientists.

The £40,000 corkscrew with an old London Bridge connection sold by auctioneers Reeman Dansie on November 26 is an extremely rare Victorian patent.

Lady Jane Franklin (1791-1875) gained worldwide admiration for her efforts to trace her husband’s disappearance on his fatal 1845 voyage seeking the North West Passage.

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.

Stanley Gibbons have launched their online collectables marketplace dealing in low-value stamps, coins, postcards and memorabilia.

Bonhams will their launch their sales of Modern and Contemporary Art from Asia in Hong Kong on March 15 during the ‘Art Basel Hong Kong’ week.

COMMENT: As the saying goes, turnover is vanity, profit is sanity. Hold that thought as you consider the announcement that Bill Ruprecht is to stand down as CEO of Sotheby’s after nearly 15 years.

BILL Ruprecht is to stand down as chief executive, chairman and president of Sotheby’s as soon as they find a replacement.

This 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.

Sotheby’s Geneva managed to grab the headlines when the Henry Graves Supercomplication set a record for a timepiece at auction.

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.

Sotheby’s latest set of results show that they plan to raise the stakes even further at the top end of the market where competition is most intense.

Setting a record for a football medal at £220,000, Stanley Matthews's 1953 F.A. Cup Final winner's medal drew dramatic competition at Graham Budd’s sale of sporting memorabilia earlier this week.

This rare battlefield First World War rose goes under the hammer at Hansons in Etwall, Derbyshire, on November 24.

A walnut secretaire cabinet by Peter Waals (1870-1937) has sold for £34,000 at Bearne Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter.

Christie’s are to extend their ground-floor exhibition space at Rockefeller Plaza in the heart of Manhattan to boost private sales.

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.

Antiques Trade Gazette Editor Ivan Macquisten explains why leading dealers and auctioneers need to rethink their strategy if they want to get public opinion on their side

A possibly unique electroplated coffee pot, designed by Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) and made by James Dixon & Sons in Sheffield, proved the highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s sale auction ‘Decorative Arts: Design from 1860’ when it was knocked down for £80,000.