Sotheby's

The protagonists in the battle over the future of Sotheby’s have called a truce, with both sides conceding points.

A reported increase in Asian buying was the most notable feature of a somewhat underwhelming series of Impressionist & Modern art auctions in New York last week.

A near complete working draft written by Bob Dylan for arguably his most famous song, ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, will be offered at Sotheby’s in New York this summer.

A massive cache of British Arts and Crafts metalware and ceramics stored in a bank for over 25 years will be sold by Bonhams through their forthcoming decorative arts auctions.

Sotheby’s are preparing for a crunch vote at the May 6 annual shareholder meeting when they hope to see off a bid by investor Daniel Loeb to join the board.

A new auction high for Chinese porcelain was set last week when Sotheby’s sold a tiny Chenghua period ‘chicken cup’ for a hammer price of HK$250m (£21.5m) as part of their latest Hong Kong sale series.

A rare painting of two big cats by George Stubbs will be offered for sale at Sotheby’s Old Master sale in London on July 9.

The stand-alone evening sale of 15 paintings by L.S. Lowry at Sotheby’s on March 26 raised £13m, with all bar two works getting away.

Sotheby’s have had to buy back the 59.60 carat flawless fancy vivid pink diamond they sold in Geneva last November for a world record $83m.

A packed saleroom and a continuous barrage of phone bids combined to ensure a near sell-out, multi-estimate result at Sotheby’s in Paris for their three-session auction (in association with Artcurial) of the collection of Félix Marcilhac.

The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) has revised its policy for sales of duplicates following controversy surrounding last July’s Sotheby’s auction.

Sotheby’s have reported $6.3bn (£3.99bn) in consolidated sales for 2013, a 17% rise on the previous year.

The Contemporary art sales in London last week raised a hammer total of £254.6m, a record for an auction series in this category in the capital.

Sotheby’s have appointed Alexander Rotter and Cheyenne Westphal as worldwide heads of Sotheby’s Contemporary art department, and Helena Newman and Simon Shaw as worldwide heads of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern art department.

Sotheby’s board have acted to fend off criticism from shareholders led by hedge fund billionaire Daniel Loeb by saying they will issue a $300m special dividend in March.

The annual sales figures issued for several of the major French auction houses (or French branches of international auction houses) showed that for many, though not all, they saw an increase over the previous year despite what has been a difficult economic climate.

The portrait of Jane Austen by James Andrews that will appear on the new £10 note in 2017 was offered by Sotheby’s as the star turn of their traditional end-of-year English literature and history sale.

The importance of China as a source of new clients in the international art market has been highlighted in a business intelligence report made available to ATG by Sotheby’s.

Even before the latest Russian art sales in London started this week, the enormous sums of money being spent in this sector became evident when Sotheby’s announced the private sale of their two star lots in advance of their auctions.

The most expensive printed book sold at auction will go on display to the public after the buyer pledged to lend it to libraries across the US before putting it on permanent loan at one of them.