Auctions

Setting a record for any British-born female artist at auction, a surrealist painting by Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) drew a lengthy bidding battle at Sotheby’s New York on May 15, taking the artist into a new league commercially.

The napkin responsible for the signing of the teenaged Lionel Messi to FC Barcelona was sold by the player’s former agent at Bonhams

A bidding battle broke out at Bellmans in West Sussex yesterday for an early and engaging portrait by Dod Procter (1890-1972), setting the second highest auction price ever recorded for the artist.

The guitar on which Clapton wrote 'Wonderful Tonight' carries an estimate of £300,000-400,000

The model of a Blériot XI could be the earliest surviving aeronautical training model in existence

Iron and gold inlayed casket depicting sieges of Boulogne sur Mer is attributed to court gunsmith and armourer Diego de Çaias.

Bidders battled for a floral wreath sent by supporters of the exiled and imprisoned emperor.

One of the largest pictures that George Stubbs (1724-1806) ever painted is coming to auction with a £7m-10m estimate.

With estimates from £300, here are five previews of items coming up at auction this week.

A painting by the early English surrealist Peter Rose Pulham (1910-1956) will be offered at Newcastle saleroom Anderson & Garland later this month.

Mountaineer’s annotated book of tragic expedition to the Alps fetches 20 times estimate in Buckinghamshire auction