Sotheby's

Richard Came was born on New Years’ Eve 1932 in Kabale, the Uganda Protectorate, on the Belgian Congo border. His father was an engineer who worked for the Colonial Service.

Gold wedding rings belonging to poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes have been bought by London jeweller Wartski.

Armenian manuscript demolishes estimate to take six figures in London saleroom

While Christie’s had by far the top-selling Old Master drawing of the latest series (the £7.5m Leonardo da Vinci drawing of the head of a bear - see ATG No 2501), a good number of other works on paper generated better competition although sold for understandably lower prices.

After a difficult period because of the pandemic, the latest round of Old Master sales in London returned to some kind of normality.

One of only two known copies of the first edition of the rules of football printed by the world’s first football club came to auction at Sotheby’s on July 21.

Set of urban views takes £220,000 in a sale where ornithological works also impressed

Sales figures or 'bilan' for the first half of this year have been released by some auction firms in France.

Ornate piece of c.1780 furniture from sheikh’s collection heads a sell-out auction

Asian buyers have become the dominant force at the top end of the auction market, according to Christie’s.

The overall performance of the latest London sales of Old Master pictures and ‘important’ works of art was fairly mixed but the auction houses did at least welcome the return of some big-ticket items.

The latest round of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s represented the highest overall total for a ‘London’ auction series since before the coronavirus pandemic.

Old Master paintings come up for sale throughout the year in France but the summer season traditionally mounts a number of dedicated auctions in the field.

Sotheby’s has described this oil on canvas by Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-96) as “a fascinating and beautiful rediscovery”.

Sotheby’s Treasures sale on July 6 includes this Dutch silver standing salt by Adam van Vianen (Utrecht, 1621) estimated at £600,000-800,000.

Among the highlights at Sotheby’s Old Masters evening sale on July 7 is one of a series of eight views of the Thames estuary exhibited by JMW Turner (1775-1851) at his gallery in Harley Street between 1807-09.

Stanley Gibbons, the buyer of the world’s most expensive stamp at Sotheby’s New York last week, said it plans to “democratise” its ownership by inviting the public to buy shares in it.