Auctions

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.

How times change. The British cycling roll of honour now features such illustrious names as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome, Laura Trott and Victoria Pendleton.

Why pay £6000-12,000 for a roadworthy Austin 7 when for thousands of pounds more you can have one that’s a wreck?

Art and antiques dealers and auctioneers are already compiling a wish-list for the industry in the wake of last week's UK vote to leave the European Union.

Two finely carved marble figures of mourners from the tomb of Jean de France, the duc de Berry (1340-1416) brother of King Charles V of France were secured by the Louvre for €4.4m (£3.67m) at Christie’s Paris last week.

A vast collection of nearly 3500 diecast models fetched £120,000 at west country auctioneers Piers Motley. The lifetime collection of John Kinchen had been “well known in the Dinky world for decades”.

A rediscovered Augustus John (1878-1961) pencil drawing of his friend Jacob Epstein sold for £80,000 at Mellors & Kirk in Nottingham.

An 1885 Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) oil, ‘hidden in plain sight’ for decades, carries an estimate of $800,000-$1.2m at Litchfield County Auctions’ June 29-30 sale in the US.

In a difficult evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s, Amedeo Modigliani’s (1884-1920) portrait of Madame Hanka Zborowska was one of few highpoints.

It was a pretty short sale. Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art auction last night offered just 27 lots and took less than 90 minutes to complete.

A painting catalogued as from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens soared past a cautious four-figure estimate to take €1.56m (£1.3m) at a recent Paris auction.

Auctioneers Hansons of Etwall, Derbyshire have announced they will be offering a fine Chinese blue and white vase with a Qianlong seal mark at their sale on July 1.

A private collection of Scottish Colourist paintings assembled by a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh gave a major boost to Lyon & Turnbull’s latest specialist auction of Scottish Paintings & Sculpture.

Madonna and Bjork were standout acts yesterday when the singers’ performance outfits appeared as part of Kerry Taylor Auctions ‘Passion for Fashion’ sale in London.

Three works by LS Lowry (1887-1976) formerly owned by the late Cilla Black sold for almost £700,000 (including premium) at Sotheby’s yesterday.

One of the main attractions at Piano Auctions’ upcoming quarterly auction at the Conway Hall in London on June 23 is this Steinway with celebrity status.

Alex Rotter has been appointed as the new chairman of Post War and Contemporary art, Christie’s Americas, having left Sotheby’s after 16 years in March.

The auction of Pelé’s personal collection became most lucrative sale of football memorabilia in history with the 2000 items totalling £3.6m including premium with 100% of the lots sold.

The small loan exhibition ‘The Peculiarity of Algernon Newton (1880-1968)’ by dealer Daniel Katz in 2012 helped put on the map a British painter who went largely unrecognised during his lifetime.

An auction record was set for any football medal as Pelé’s 1970 World Cup winner’s medal was knocked down at £280,000 in London this evening.