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.

Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ came to the block at just the right time for Sotheby’s when it set the record for anything ever sold at auction.

“My dear Caroline, The enclosed Ring once belonged to your Aunt Jane. It was given to me by your Aunt Cassandra as soon as she knew that I was engaged to your Uncle. I bequeath it to you. God bless you.”

Have you heard of an auction house called Twistie’s? Does it sound strangely familiar?

Among the clocks sold in London this summer, there were some of the glitziest and most expensive timekeepers to go under the hammer in recent times, many of them made for the Chinese market.

In 1922, Beatrix Potter, with her most famous little books already behind her, was persuaded by Anne Carroll Moore of the New York Public Library to produce a book of illustrated nursery rhymes.

A string of record prices at the latest Old Master sales in London helped the sector to its highest total ever for an auction series.

Previously unknown to scholars, this exceptional pen and ink drawing by Canaletto (1697-1768) set an auction record for a work on paper by the artist at the latest series of Old Master sales in London.