Auctions

Estimated at $30,000-50,000, an ink and colour on paper hanging scroll by Shi Lu (1919-82) took a mighty $430,000 (£354,500) at the latest Bonhams (28/27/21% buyer’s premium) auction of Fine Chinese Paintings in New York.

An example from Frederick Edward McWilliam’s (1909-92) 'Women of Belfast' series is being offered at Halls’ auction in Shrewsbury on December 6.

Japanese Contemporary crafts currently enjoy a stronger following than more traditional works of art.

It was in the early 1950s that Prunella Clough (1919-99) ‘found’ her subject matter after touring London’s industrial wastelands and factories.

The textile works by Alighiero Boetti are instantly recognisable with their often geometric designs and brightly coloured embroidery.

Chinese item was owned by dealer who ran famed store on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago

This pair of Qianlong (1735-96) cloisonné standing lion dogs with riders came for sale at Heritage (25% buyer’s premium) with a provenance to George Ann Brown Carter, wife of media scion Amon Giles Carter Jr (1919-82) of Fort Worth, Texas.

Konrad Klapheck, who died at the end of July aged 88, was a pioneer of German pop art and is credited with the invention of so-called Machine Paintings.

Many 20th century works are selling very healthily at mid-range price points

ATG’s pick of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com, featuring both the highest prices over-estimate and the top prices paid online.

The career of the French artist Pierre Soulages spanned over 80 years. He died in 2022 at the age of 102.

Lot 57 at Sutton Hill Farm Country Auctions on October 21 comprised ‘2 framed paintings, signed J Cole, one other’, taking a hammer price of £8. Lot 59, a ‘vintage Sesame Street Big Bird piano toy’ (in working order) made it into double figures, at £14.

A rare ceramic cat given by David Hockney (b.1937) to strangers who helped him as a student fetched a record price for one of the artist’s sculptural felines when it sold at Stacey’s in Chelmsford.

A rare Islamic Mecca-centred world map, considered a masterpiece from Safavid Persia, will star in the Islamic and Indian Art sale at Bonhams.

The eggs of the extinct Aepyornis maximus or elephant bird are the largest of any known species.

This ancient Egyptian sculptural fragment, part of the Thomaston Place Auction Galleries’ Autumn Majestic Sale in Maine on November 10-12, comes in a silver mount inscribed 'Small toenail from colossal Statue of Ramses II. Temple of Luxor, Feb. 13th, 1899'.