Sotheby's

Sotheby’s have issued a defence in response to a High Court claim made over a work sold at auction which was attributed to a ‘follower’ of Caravaggio.

After 45 years, Sotheby’s are to cease holding auctions in Canada to focus instead on private sales and sourcing material for the international market.

Sotheby’s evening sale of Contemporary art in London was led by a Francis Bacon triptych which sold to a German collector at £12.25m.

It looks too good to eat, doesn’t it? This is Sotheby’s Surrealist Tea, concocted by the Sotheby’s Cafe as a cheeky marketing gimmick (albeit a tasty one) to promote their Surrealist Art evening sale on February 5 at New Bond Street.

Sotheby’s Institute of Art are to partner Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles to offer a new Master’s degree in Art Business.

An early photographic album which has sold for a record-breaking £290,000 came into the hands of its first owner 140 years ago as a prize – for winning a pigeon-shooting competition.

As predicted, Michael Winner’s superb collection of original book illustrations realised a total in excess of £1m at Sotheby’s.

This elaborately cased Breguet quarter-striking clock mounted with a half quarter striking gold watch has beaten its own record as the highest-priced clock ever sold at auction.

It took over 15 minutes to sell, but when the gavel finally came down at £26.5m the Raphael from Chatsworth had become the second most expensive Old Master ever sold at auction – and the priciest drawing of all time.

With London now accustomed to high levels of spending by private Russian buyers, the latest auctions in this sector once again produced some eye-catching prices for particular lots.

The Contemporary art market rose to a new level last week as both Sotheby’s and Christie’s saw record sales in New York.

Making the most amount of money ever seen for a Contemporary art auction, Christie’s evening sale on November 14 made a staggering $363.5m (£237.6m) hammer.

Sotheby’s have seen a 50% increase of revenues generated from private treaty sales for the third quarter of 2012.

The latest Impressionist & Modern Art sales in New York saw generally selective demand as bidding failed to take off on a large proportion of the works on offer.

Summers Place Auctions, in association with Sotheby’s, have formally unveiled their new, purpose-built 5000 sq ft gallery.

Ever popular in the saleroom, the artist Edward Seago (1910-1974) has a following at auction that few 20th century British painters can match.

This year’s Frieze week auction totals in London were largely consistent with 2011, but the much-publicised sale of Eric Clapton’s prize abstract by Gerhard Richter (b.1932) proved crucial in bolstering the overall figures.

In what has been described as “the largest single transaction to ever occur in the field of decorative arts”, California Bay Area auctioneers Michaan’s have purchased, for sale, an unparalleled collection of Tiffany and other Art Nouveau works of art.

Later this year, Sotheby’s will be offering three valuable works of art from the Devonshire collection at Chatsworth House including one of the best Raphael drawings remaining in private hands.

Setting an auction record for the artist, a picture by Arthur Boyd (1920-99) was the top-selling work among the 60 lots of Australian and International paintings at Sotheby’s most recent sale in Melbourne.