Auctions

A £1.2m house record at Dreweatts was the highlight of the recent round of UK Asian art sales.

This 900-year-old Pala dynasty bronze figure of a Buddhist deity beat all expectations to bring £210,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Sworders’ Asian Art sale in Stansted Mountfitchet on May 13.

Man Ray’s 'Le Violon d’Ingres' has set a new record for a photograph, selling for $10.5m (£8m) at Christie’s in New York.

One of only a small number of drawings by Michelangelo still remaining in private hands sold for €20m (£16.9m) at Christie’s Paris last week.

This original concert poster advertises the second of two now legendary punk rock concerts in Manchester in the summer of 1976.

Estimated at just $200-300, this folding map of the island of Antigua proved rather more expensive than expected.

Our regular listing of UK and Irish book auctions.

This large iron lock and key is inscribed Presented to WP Brookes Esq by a Member of the Wenlock Olympian Class May 18th 1869.

Among recent sales with a lyrical element was Mallams’ (25% buyer’s premium) Art & Music auction on April 6 in Oxford.

Single sale offers two notable collections featuring Italian maiolica and French faience

Pictured here are two examples of provenanced Chinese imperial works of art that achieved high prices in the French capital this spring.

In Massachusetts, auction firm Skinner (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) held the first of a series of sales given over to the carpet collection of Jim Dixon with an online session from April 25-May 6 and a live sale on May 4.

This pair of satinwood demilune console tables with their fine marquetry and carved details are of exceptional quality and workmanship. The Thomas Chippendale workshop is a good candidate for their manufacture.

A London saleroom offered what was billed as the only “known” surviving set of uncorrected galley proofs for Harry Potter & the Philosopher’s Stone.

Koller will hold a three-session sale of Asian art in its Zurich rooms on June 1.

Underlining the recovery of the post-covid art market, at the very top-end at least, the latest series of 20th and 21st century auctions in New York posted a record total for a flagship auction fortnight.

This rare doucai porcelain vase, with Qianlong marks and probably of period, provided a classic tale of discovery in the saga of the Chinese boom.

The classic enamel station totem signs used in the early days of the newly formed British Railways have long shown their pulling power at auction.

A selection of 15 upcoming lots from auctions taking place around the UK and Ireland.