Christie's

Ahead of a threatened import tax, overseas consignments of Chinese art were among the best sellers in the September Asian art sales in New York.

One of the earliest pieces of ancient art in the US, an ancient Assyrian relief that arrived in Virginia before the American Civil War, is being offered at auction.

Known familiarly as the ‘Audley End Lydgate’, the mid-15th century vellum manuscript shown below is ‘The Fall of Princes’, a Middle English version by the poet John Lydgate of Laurent de Premierfait’s French translation of Boccaccio’s De Casibus virorum illustrium.

Christie’s executive Dirk Boll told delegates at the Art Business Conference that the decorative arts could be coming back into fashion.

A final selection from the extremely varied Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) major summer sale ranges from the scientific works of such giants as Newton and Galileo to the first jigsaw puzzle.

Ivory elements of an important piece of Chippendale furniture were removed prior to its appearance at auction earlier this year, ATG has learned.

Briefly noted in ATG No 2353 was a copy of Through the Looking Glass sold for £30,000 at Sotheby’s (25/20/12.9%) on July 10, where it was part of the eighth and latest sale of books from ‘The Library of an English Bibliophile’.

The US-China trade row provides an unwelcome distraction to the September edition of New York’s 'Asian Art Week' (AAW).

Pre-Raphaelite artist shunned and persecuted in his time is now a popular auction choice.

Spurred on by Middle Eastern demand, Orientalist art came out top at Christie’s 19th century European & Orientalist Art auction in London.

Works by the Pre-Raphaelites and their followers continued to outperform the rest of the Victorian art market during the latest round of sales in London. Topping the auctions at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s were two ‘jeune fille fatale’ creations by Pre-Raphaelite latecomer, John William Waterhouse (1849-1917).