Sotheby's

This version of John Constable’s (1776-1837) celebrated painting ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows’ sold for $4.5m (£3.1m) at Sotheby’s Old Master sale in New York yesterday. It was an oil sketch with quite a backstory.

Sotheby's have announced a new buyer’s premium structure in New York. Effective from February 1, the rates will apply as follows:

What has been billed as the most significant sale of French 17th and 18th century paintings for 20 years was announced earlier this month.

Sotheby’s, who have yet to publish full results for 2014, have announced headline figures for auction sales (up 18% at £3.7bn/$6bn), their highest ever total.

A High Court judge has dismissed a claim made against Sotheby’s surrounding the sale of a disputed version of Caravaggio’s ‘The Card Sharps’.

As part of Old Master Week in New York, Sotheby’s will sell paintings assembled by J.E. Safra on January 29.

Personal effects of Sir Winston Churchill, including the morocco dispatch box pictured here, were among the highlights of Sotheby’s highly publicised estate sale of his youngest child, the late Mary Soames.

One of the best-loved of all of E.H. Shepard’s illustrations to the famous A.A. Milne books has set a saleroom record after selling for £260,000.

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

The outstanding lot of the latest Old Master auction series in London, ‘Rome, from Mount Aventine’ by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851), was knocked down at £27m at Sotheby’s evening sale, setting a record price for the artist.

This copper-gilt coffin plate, bearing an inscription in Latin with the dates of Oliver Cromwell’s birth, death and inauguration as Lord Protector and the arms of the Protectorate to the reverse, was found when his body was exhumed from the Henry VII chapel at Westminster Abbey on January 26, 1661.

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.

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.

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

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.

The opening salvos have been fired in the court case centred on the version of Caravaggio’s ‘The Card Sharps’ which sold at Sotheby’s in 2006.

Paintings and objects from the estate of the late Mary Soames, the youngest daughter of Sir Winston Churchill, are to be sold at Sotheby’s in London.

Still Life, Vase with Daisies, painted by Vincent van Gogh at the home of his physician Paul Gachet just weeks before he died, carries an estimate of $30m-50m at Sotheby’s New York on November 4. It will be on view in London from October 12-18.