Christie's

Following the removal of four lots from a New York sale, Christie’s has expressed frustration at being denied access to key information on possible looted antiquities.

Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) has held its first live sales in Paris since lockdown.

Auction houses in London have announced they are restarting live auctions in June.

Offering a range of antiquities, Old Masters, 19th century art, sculpture, books and manuscripts, Christie’s ‘Classic Week’ of sales in New York will take place as a series of seven online auctions next month.

Christie’s Paris rooms has announced a programme of 18 summer sales that it will be holding over May, June and July. These are a mixture of timed auctions and live online (huis clos) auctions.

The cult following that surrounds publicity-shy Joel Arthur Rosenthal continues to grow. Secondary market prices for JAR fashion jewellery are reaching new heights.

Sotheby’s and Christie’s have released figures to highlight how they have been able to manage the process of rapidly migrating their core business online during the coronavirus crisis.

Works by the French artist Jean Arp (1886-1966) form the main constituent of the 81-lot sale of the Greta Stroeh collection to be offered by Christie’s Paris rooms on Mar 26.

Star turn among some 120 lots of playing cards offered as part of a Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) sale was the last to be offered. A complete set of Charles Hodges’ Astronomical Playing Cards, it sold online for £3000.

The overall total from the latest London series of Contemporary art auctions was down year-on-year. With one day sale still to run at the time of going to press, the running total of £197.4m from the sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips compared to £253.9m from the equivalent sales in 2019.