Print Edition

It may be strange and surreal, but John Spencer-Churchill’s (1909-92) landscape panorama of the evacuation of Dunkirk is the only depiction of the event known to have been painted by an eyewitness.

Online. Offline. Far East. Middle East. Though measurement of the art sector is notoriously tricky, partly relying as it does on sample rather than full dealer data, art market reports proliferated in 2017. The month of March proved the high season.

Our selection of reader letters summing up the issues that roused your passions in 2017...

Young dealers made a welcome appearance this year including 16-year-old Tom Hurst, the youngest member of Antiques Young Guns.

In the past year dealers and auctioneers have used a variety of ways to raise their profile on social media, from puppy posts to videos of restoration in action...

The night, just three months before her death, that Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in sultry tones at a Democratic Party fundraiser celebrating John F Kennedy’s 45th birthday caused quite a sensation.

A fascinating archive of manuscripts, ephemera and artefacts relating to the life and career of the great actor, playwright and theatrical manager David Garrick sold for a far higher than predicted £90,000 at Bonhams (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on November 15.

‘Stage Coach Passengers passing Woburn Sands’ is one of 100 coloured engraved caricatures after Isaac Cruikshank that illustrate GM Woodward’s Eccentric Excursions or Literary and Pictorial Sketches in England and South Wales, interspersed with Curious Anecdotes of 1807.

It has been another bumper year of art and antiques fairs and markets announcements, news and views. Here is a selection of highlights.

Two dealers in more unusual material also featured in the column. Bill Neal’s specialist subject is antique Chinese mother-of-pearl gaming counters, in which he deals online and at Adams Antique Fairs events. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of this arcane and fascinating subject.

It’s time to pit your arts and antiques brains against the ATG giant prize crossword.

While English ceramics feature in most provincial sales, November provided four auctions where the market could be looked at overall.

Realistically modelled crib figures are a particular speciality of southern European countries – the Santons of Provence being one well-known example. Another is the famous presepe figures from Naples.

An extraordinary example of British avant-garde clothing made on the eve of the First World War sold for £29,000 (plus 20% buyer’s premium) at Mallams Oxford on December 8.

Strong competition emerged for an oil sketch for Eugène Delacroix’s 'Liberty Leading the People' at Christie’s in London on December 14.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi set the highest price ever for an artwork sold at auction when it took $400m ($450m with premium) at Christie’s New York on November 15.

Here we look back at some of the notable people the trade lost in the past 12 months...

A copy of the first published work of the Brontë sisters sold for a record sum at Sotheby’s (25/20/12/5% buyer’s premium) on November 7, just a few months after a new high had been set at another London auction.

The photographic archive of Emile Zola (1840-1902) was offered by Artcurial (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on December 4 with over 90% of the 75 lots changing hands.

Helen Sutcliffe runs the premises of Sutcliffe Galleries in Harrogate. The family-run business has been trading for more than six decades and specialises in paintings from the 18th century to the present day.