Christie's

COMMENT: ATG Editor Ivan Macquisten argues that the top end of the art market needs a reality check if it wants to remain in control of its own destiny

Christie’s chief executive Steven Murphy has unexpectedly quit his post, saying he has completed the job he set out to do when appointed in 2010.

James Watson’s 1962 award for his work on DNA set a world record price for a Nobel Prize Medal at Christie’s in New York when it sold for $4.1m (£2.6m) hammer.

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.

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.

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

Christie’s continue to dip their toe in retail waters with an initiative for Christmas shoppers at South Kensington.

The chairman of one of the UK’s most successful provincial auction houses has joined the condemnation of Christie’s new 2% success fee, saying he is appalled by it.

Christie’s have opened their new exhibition space and office in Shanghai at the Ampire Building, near the Bund.

Christie’s have reorganised the sale schedule for their future auctions of Chinese works of Art in Europe making some significant changes.

169 years after Franklin’s ill-fated 1845-48 attempt to find the western exit to the Northwest Passage, his Third Officer's Arctic Medal has come up for sale just as the Canadian government has announced that one of Franklin’s ships has been located.

This memorial design featuring a magnificent peacock resting on a bier and surrounded by myrtle leaves was painted by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones in 1886 following the tragic death of Laura Lyttelton, a friend of the artist who died a few days after giving birth to a son.

For some years now, Far Eastern buyers have been demonstrating their fascination with so-called ‘sing-songs’ – the elaborate 18th century automaton table clocks made for the Chinese market by paying ever-increasing sums to secure them.

Christie’s reported auction sales for the first half of 2014 of $3.6bn (£2.2bn), a 23% rise on the same period last year. Sotheby’s took $3.12bn (£1.9bn), a 22% increase.

While two of the top prices of the London auctions last week came for ancient sculptures – the £14m Old Kingdom Egyptian limestone statue at Christie’s and the £8.3m for the Roman marble of Aphrodite (c.41-54AD) at Sotheby’s – there was also a bumper run of Old Master and British picture sales.

The first instalment of a single-owner collection of early leather vessels was dispersed in Christie’s South Kensington’s vernacular and country-style furnishing ‘Masters and Makers’ sale.

This 4500-year-old Egyptian painted limestone statue topped last week’s summer series of Old Masters and works of art sales in London.

Consigned by the debt-ridden Delaware Museum of Art, Isabella and the Pot of Basil by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was the top lot of Christie’s sale of Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite and British Impressionist art in London last week.

The earliest dated picture by the 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer (1632-75), one of only two works by the artist left in private hands, will be a highlight of Christie’s Old Masters auction in London next month.