Auctions

‘Lot and his Daughters’ by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) sold for £40m at Christie’s last night, setting a house record for an Old Master painting.

At the time, Gary Lineker’s promise to present the new season’s first Match of the Day in his underpants if Leicester City won the Premier League didn’t seem like a rash pledge to make.

The original artwork for the cover of The Mighty Thor, published by Marvel Comics in 1968, sold for £36,000 at a recent auction at Charterhouse in Sherborne, Dorset.

An eleventh-hour private treaty deal has secured a photographic archive for the Penlee House Museum and Gallery.

A rare interior scene by Swiss painter Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789) was the top lot at Sotheby’s Old Masters evening sale last night, selling at £3.8m.

An early 17th century self-portrait by the English court painter William Dobson (1611-46) was knocked down at £920,000 at Bonhams’ Old Masters sale today.

As our next Prime Minister negotiates our exit from the EU from September, she/he will have many pressing priorities. In this 'letter' the industry sets out its own priorities in the hope of relief from the red tape that bedevils our sector

Among the works sold over estimate at today’s silver and jewellery auction at Sworders in Stansted Mountfitchet was a rare silver-gilt three-piece teaset that tripled expectations when it was knocked down at £4100.

Five pieces of furniture consigned from direct descendants of architect and craftsman Sidney Barnsley (1865-1926) drew bidders’ attention at Woolley & Wallis’ latest Arts and Crafts sale in Salisbury.

South African auction house Strauss & Co have made a number of appointments to its board in the wake of the death of founding managing director, Stephan Welz at the end of last year.

The Contemporary art sales in London last week saw a reduced supply of major works affect the overall totals which came in at their lowest levels since 2013. However, the material on offer generally met with decent demand and fears of a Brexit meltdown in the market did not materialise.

The latest themed auction held by Christie’s was their ‘Defining British Art’ evening sale in London. View ATG’s selection of 10 highlights here.

This late medieval repoussé medal depicting ‘The Emperor Heraclius’s Return of the True Cross to Jerusalem’ proved the highlight of the Sir Timothy Clifford collection of Renaissance and Baroque medals sold by Morton & Eden in London.

A series of blue-chip consignments from different sectors of the market helped Christie’s ‘Defining British Art’ evening sale in London last night to a £99.5m total including premium. The auction offered paintings by major names including Joshua Reynolds, John Constable, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon but it was a Henry Moore sculpture that led proceedings, selling at £22m.

Crowning the white-glove success of Japanese works from the Portier collection in Paris was the sale of this signature portrait print by Kitagawa Utamaro for €600,000 (£500,000).

Wellers Fine Art Ltd will continue to hold monthly sales of jewellery and watches in Guildford, despite the liquidation of a separate commercial operation.

Two paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) consigned to auction by the actor Johnny Depp sold for a combined £7.6m at Christie’s evening sale of post-war and Contemporary art last night.

Fears that the Brexit vote would seriously impact the art market were partially allayed last night as Sotheby’s Contemporary art sale delivered robust results.

It was definitely a case of the ‘best of British’ this weekend as Aston Martin, Jaguar and Bentley went head-to-head at Bonhams classic car auction.