NewsArt market
Christie's to sell Texan oil tycoon Edward L. Cox's collection of Impressionist art
The collection is expected to make over $200m in New York in November
NewsArt market
Follow the money: Christie's bets on Hong Kong with vast new headquarters as clients in Asia spend over $1bn so far this year
Auction house will move into Zaha Hadid-designed luxury tower The Henderson in 2024, where it will hold year-round sales and exhibitions
NewsChristie's
Can auctions save the earth? Christie's to fundraise for environmental charity by selling works by Cecily Brown and Rashid Johnson
The auction house has teamed with up Gallery Climate Coalition to raise between $5m to $10m for ClientEarth
NewsArt market
Let's bid: David Bowie album artwork for sale, direct from the artist who created it
A 120-lot online auction of Edward Bell's collection of designs, photographs and proofs starts today
NewsArt market
Bellotto's view of Verona sells for record £10.5m at Christie's Old Master sale in London
Seven new artist records were set in tonight's auction, including for Georges de La Tour, while a second highest prices were set for female painters Angelica Kauffman and Artemisia Gentileschi
NewsArt market
Legal battle over €15m Leonardo discovery: owner, Tajan auction house and French government fight it out
An export ban was placed on the drawing in 2017 but the French culture ministry has not purchased the drawing as planned
NewsArt market
Sotheby's will sell Christo's preparatory works for Arc de Triomphe wrap
Proceeds from exhibition will go towards funding the monumental Paris project
NewsArt market
'An opportunity for bargain hunters' or a waste of time? Italy relaxes stringent export laws for Old Masters and antiques worth less than €13,500
Lower-value older works and those by artists who died less than 50 years ago no longer need an export licence to leave the country—but the process can still be slow
NewsArt market
England may be through to the Euro finals, but Sotheby's Old Master paintings sale scores an own goal
The auction house's £17.2m offering in London tonight was only 57% sold, overshadowed by the football
NewsArt market
Three women, two cities, and a sea of Asian bidders—Christie's London to Paris sale delivers 'strongest summer season' since 2017
All but one of the four auctioneers conducting the £153.6m marathon 20th- and 21st-century evening sale were women
NewsArt market
Lucian Freud's portrait of David Hockney fetches £14.9m in strong hybrid sales at Sotheby’s in London
Asian bidders and British art boosted figures to make auction house's highest summer total since 2018
PreviewArt market
Highlights from July's auctions: from a Leonardo bear to a Dürer-inspired hare
Our pick of the works coming up for sale in London and Los Angeles
NewsArt market
Forgotten Fragonard painting, deemed 'worthless' by its owners, fetches £6.6m at auction
Philosopher Reading is now the third most expensive work by the Rococo artist to sell at auction
NewsCanada
Works by women artists reach new heights in Canadian auction
Two canvases by Carr blew past their estimate to become among the highest auction prices paid for her work, while a painting by 92-year-old Rita Letendre set a record for the artist
NewsArt market
Blast off! Painting by David Bowie sells for more than $87,000 in online auction
The painting was found in an Ontario thrift shop and purchased for just five Canadian dollars
NewsArt market
Records set for Cinga Samson, Avery Singer, Vija Celmins, Titus Kaphar and Julie Curtiss at Phillips's $118.2m evening sale
Auction house chose to hold its 20th century and contemporary art evening sale in New York during what is traditionally the London season due to "detonated" calendar
NewsArt market
Chinese gold sculpture breaks German auction record at €14m—almost triple the previous high
A Chinese collector bought the 15th century gold and bronze Ming-dynasty sculpture of the god Vajrabhairava earlier today
PreviewObject lessons
June auction highlights: from a delicate Degas pastel to a Kandinsky painting once owned by the Guggenheim museum
Our pick of the best objects up for sale in London and New York
NewsBooks
Bronte childhood portraits at stake as UK museums and libraries race to save literary treasures
Sotheby’s has postponed auction of extraordinary Honresfield Library as a consortium seeks £15 million to buy it
NewsArt market
Sotheby's launches sales in Germany—against stiff competition from local auction houses
The opulent Palais Oppenheim in Cologne will host exhibitions and sales from September. Sotheby's says move is due to growing client base in country, not Brexit
NewsArt market
'Two cool older boys': Lucian Freud's portrait of David Hockney expected to sell for up to £12m
The work, which took four months to paint in 2002, will be auctioned at Sotheby's this month
NewsArt market
Sotheby's to offer Tim Berners-Lee's original code for world wide web as (you guessed it) an NFT
Berners-Lee says NFTs are the "ideal way to package the origins behind the web"
NewsArt market
Shoe designer's $18.9m 'Double Eagle' sets new world record for a coin at auction
The unique coin from 1933, part of a collection amassed by luxury shoe designer, Stuart Weitzman, sold at Sotheby's in New York yesterday
NewsArt market
Bonhams consignor withdraws looted Nepalese sculptures from auction
The five figures of Hindu gods once adorned a gilded temple gateway in a Unesco world heritage site
NewsJulie Mehretu
Julie Mehretu donates major painting to Art for Justice Fund
The auction is estimated to raise $3m to $4m to support efforts to end mass incarceration
NewsAuction Report
Sotheby's American Art auction saw some prices soar, while Christie's remained grounded
A museum sells art to balance its budget, a gorgeous Sargent goes unwanted, and a painting of a giraffe reaches high.
NewsAuctions
Newark Museum of Art’s much-disputed sale of Thomas Cole painting nets $988,000
Auction at Sotheby’s yields promising yet mixed results for museum’s drive to fund collections care
NewsArt market
Christie's rounds off New York's auction week with strong $481m 20th century sale—and half of it was pre-sold through guarantees
The sale was led by a classic 1932 Picasso of Marie-Thérèse at $103.4m and set new records for Alice Neel, Grace Hartigan, Barbara Hepworth and Alighiero Boetti
BlogInsta’ gratification
Can Instagram bring the big auction houses into the digital age?
Christie's and Sotheby's are starting to embrace what the social media platform has to offer
NewsArt market
Monet's $70m water lilies float to the top of Sotheby's three-auction marathon
The evening of sales in New York totalled $439.6m, with Basquiat's Versus Medici topping the contemporary art offering at $50.8m and a new record for Leonor Fini
NewsArt market
Hands up who's bidding for classic post-war art? Picky response to Anne Marion's all-American collection reflects market's shifting tastes
Sotheby's auction of the Texan rancher's collection totalled $157.2m and set new records for Kenneth Noland, Larry Rivers and Richard Diebenkorn
NewsArt market
Spotty performance for unseen Yayoi Kusama paintings at Bonhams New York—but works on paper soar off the block
Pieces came from the collection of late New York heart surgeon who befriended the artist in the 1960s
NewsArt market
Access denied: British auction house executives refused US visas to travel for marquee New York sales week
But the show goes on at Sotheby’s and Christie’s with a mixture of in-person and remote bidding, while British dealers are getting creative in the Big Apple
NewsArt market
A $93.1m Basquiat and reams of records for hot young names kicks off New York auction week at Christie's
The $210.4m sale included new highs for contemporary artists like Mickalene Thomas, Jordan Casteel and Lynette Yiadom Boakye, while some established names fell flat
PreviewObject lessons
May auction highlights: from a rare Cubist Hockney portrait to a playful piece by Alexander Calder
Our pick of the best objects up for sale in New York, Dallas and Paris
NewsArt market
Leonardo da Vinci's bear pawtrait could make record for drawing by the artist
The work is expected to fetch up to £12m in a live sale at Christie's London this July
NewsArt market
Charles I disposed of this Van Dyck portrait when he signed the sitter's death warrant. Now it is up for sale at Christie's
The 17th century painting of the Earl of Strafford, recently discovered to have been in the Royal collection, is expected to sell for up to £5m in London in July
NewsHeritage
Catherine de Medici portrait returns to Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill after almost 200 years
Painting is the only surviving contemporary image of the monarch
NewsArt market
Artists are expected to give away their work for charity. This new auction platform aims to give them something back in return
The Stand has been launched by former Sotheby's boss and will give 70% to artists, 20% to charity
NewsArt market
Crypto-creep accelerates as Sotheby's accepts Ether and Bitcoin for $5m Banksy painting
The sale this month will be the first time the auction house has accepted cryptocurrency as payment for a physical work of art
NewsArt market
Taxidermy flying kittens, Irish giants and Queen Victoria's knickers: the world of Viktor Wynd
The artist, writer and dealer is selling a selection of bizarre pieces from his London-based Museum of Curiosities on 6 May
NewsRestitution
Sotheby's to sell $2m Meissen porcelain collection restituted by Dutch government to heirs of Jewish industrialist
The collection of 18th-century porcelain was previously exhibited in Dutch museums
NewsArt market
Gettin' biddy wit it: Will Smith handprint painting to appear alongside works by Hockney and Picasso in Dubai auction
Charity sale is in aid of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's "100 Million Meals" campaign
NewsArt market
Christie's to offer Xu Beihong painting for £41m—highest estimate put on an Asian work by a Western auction house
It could become the most expensive Asian work sold by a Western auction house. Meanwhile, young contemporary names proved popular at last night's Sotheby's sale in Hong Kong
NewsArt market
From heartstrings to purse strings: nostalgia and the art market
Sometimes the wistful memory of time long past is all one needs to spend a few hundred thousand dollars
NewsArt market
Phillips starts 2021 sales with a 17% leg up on last year
Despite the “headwinds” of Covid-19 and an extended UK lockdown, the firm raised £24.8m in its three-city livestreamed auction
NewsNFTs
A grey single-pixel 'work' sells for $1.3m at Sotheby’s maiden NFT sale
Over 3,000 bidders purchased nearly 24,000 digital works in a three-day, multi-facted sale on Niftygateway
NewsArt market
'Good reasons to believe this is a new Caravaggio': specialists cautiously vouch for €1,500 painting pulled from Spanish auction
Government does not want to repeat ‘export mistake’ of 1970s when another work by the Old Master ended up in the US
NewsArt market
Christie’s to auction a slice of NFT history for $9m this May
Larva Labs created 10,000 CryptoPunks three years ago—and gave away most of them
CommentDiary of an art historian
Boo to NFTs! Hang on, think of no customs fees
As Brexit makes buying anything from Europe almost impossible, purchasing questionable digital art is almost tempting
BlogAdventures with Van Gogh
Who bought the €13m Van Gogh? Britain’s second richest family
Montmartre painting was auctioned twice by Sotheby’s, after a bidder failed to have the necessary cash
PreviewArt market
Object lessons: from illuminated early golf memorabilia to a marble fragment with a twist
Our pick of the highlights from April's auctions
NewsArt market
Selling, selling, sold...and sold again. The truth about the bungled sale of a Van Gogh at Sotheby's
Rare painting of a Montmartre street scene sold three times in the same auction
NewsArt market
In bidding confusion at Sotheby’s, unseen Van Gogh initially sells for €16.2m but is then resold for €13m at end of auction
Cross-category relay sale brought in $176.2m against high estimate of $120.5m and culminated with surprise Basquiat announcement
NewsArt market
Sacha Jafri reveals the backbreaking process of creating 'world's largest painting' that sold for $62m
The work sold to cryptocurrency entrepreneur Andre Abdoune and all proceeds will be donated to four charities fighting child poverty
NewsAuctions
Victorian watercolours by trailblazing British feminist and social justice campaigner come up for auction
Ewbank Auctions in England has estimated the amateur paintings by Josephine Butler at around £250 each
NewsArt market
Banksy's Game Changer sells for record £16.7m in aid of charities supporting the NHS
The work appeared suddenly last May at the University Hospital Southampton as a thank you to its staff during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic
NewsArt market
Jean-Michel Basquiat's Warrior becomes most expensive western work of art sold in Asia at $41.7m
The 1982 work sold today at Christie's in Hong Kong to an Asian buyer
NewsWorld Health Organization
‘Mirror pandemic’: art’s vital role in tackling the mental health crisis
A multi-agency $15m initiative backed by the WHO and funded through a series of charity auctions at Christie’s will support artist-led projects to improve mental, social and environmental health
NewsArt market
Gaitonde breaks Indian art auction record—again—but Amrita Sher-Gil painting falls flat in uneven South Asian sales
A number of Indian artists made their auction debut this season, though several established names missed the mark
NewsArt and health
World Health Organization joins art world to launch global campaign confronting mental health toll of pandemic
Year-long series of Healing Arts auctions and events aims to support mental health treatment and recovery in the wake of Covid-19
AnalysisOld Masters
Today’s obsession with assigning singular attribution to Old Masters may be lucrative, but it is often misleading
The cult of the individual reigns supreme but in reality Renaissance works were often not made by one hand
NewsDeaccessioning
Members of US museums association narrowly reject proposal to contemplate a change in guidelines on art sales
Amid debate, AAMD votes 91-88 against exploring a controversial revision of rules to allow proceeds to finance collections care
NewsNFTs
Sotheby’s gets in on NFT fever with a collaboration with digital artist Pak
Auction house's head of sale Max Moore has already personally bought a work by the artist
NewsArt market
Newly attributed Bernini drawing up for auction in France
Actéon auctioneers expect the 17th-century study of a male nude, authenticated by Ann Sutherland Harris and Louis de Bayser, to sell for €30,000 to €50,000
NewsArt market
Sotheby’s to auction Karl Lagerfeld’s collection in Monaco
The fashion designer, who died in 2019, was an enthusiastic collector of art and design
NewsAuctions
Surrealist collection of Man Ray's assistant sells out at Christie's despite 'serious concerns about ownership' of most of the works
Ahead of yesterday's sale in Paris, the Man Ray Trust called for a delay claiming that Lucien Treillard “stole a substantial number of Man Ray’s works and possessions"
NewsArt market
Rediscovered portrait by India's most famous female painter Amrita Sher-Gil expected to sell for $2.8m
1932 painting of artist's close friend has been out of the public eye for over 90 years but now comes up for auction at Christie's in New York
NewsArt market
Winston Churchill's painting of Marrakech—given to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and sold by Angelina Jolie—sells for record £8.2m
Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque was one of three works by the former British prime minister sold at Christie's tonight for a total of £11.2m—to the same buyer
NewsArt market
The 'quintessential' Art Deco smoking (or vaping) room—yours for £2m
Jean Dunand's Les Palmiers was designed for a Parisian apartment in the 1930s
BlogAdventures with Van Gogh
Bought for around $1,000, now worth $10m: where was the newly unveiled Van Gogh landscape hidden away?
Montmartre windmill painting is on view with Sotheby’s for the first time since it left the easel
NewsAuctions
Unseen Van Gogh painting of Paris—owned by one French family for a century—could make $10m at Sotheby’s
The rare work shows a distinctive pastoral side to the city's Montmartre neighbourhood
NewsArt market
Sotheby's to sell the $150m collection of Texan rancher and philanthropist Anne Marion
The group of predominantly post-war art, including works by Clyfford Still and Andy Warhol, will be sold over a series of sales this spring
NewsAuction houses
Christie’s to accept cryptocurrency for first time
The buyer of Beeple's NFT work will be able to pay with ETH later this month
NewsArt market
First Paris sale of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s art collection brings in nearly $10m
Works by the artists, and their friends, largely exceeded estimates in the white glove auction. Part two will take place tomorrow
NewsArt market
‘The future of the art market’: Christie’s to become first major auction house to sell a standalone NFT work of art
With investors such as Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya backing the purely digital art form, the trade is beginning to take notice
NewsArt market
Jean-Michel Basquiat's Warrior could become the most expensive Western work of art ever sold at auction in Asia
The 1982 painting will be sold in a single-lot evening sale at Christie's Hong Kong on 23 March with an estimate of $31m to $41m
NewsArt market
English house museum Kettle's Yard to sell donated collection to raise funds
Group of 36 works left by John Ady is hoped to make around £35,000 for the Cambridge gallery when it sells at Cheffins auction house this month
NewsArt market
How an antiques trade paper led to a tech firm with £600m potential
Online bidding pioneer Auction Technology Group (ATG) is intending to go public to secure investment. The former editor of the original ATG, Antiques Trade Gazette, charts its rise and rivals
BlogAdventures with Van Gogh
Van Gogh’s Japanese girl could fetch record $10m at auction
A Provençal drawing coming up at Christie’s New York is based on a painting in Washington, DC
CommentArt market
Sotheby's brought to you by Bulgari—product placement at auction has arrived, with limitless potential
Yesterday's auction saw auctioneer plugging the brand while wearing one of its watches. What might we see next—Edvard Munch sponsored by Bollinger?
NewsAuctions
Botticelli portrait sells for record $92.1m at Sotheby's in New York
A portrait of a Young man holding a roundel (around 1470-80) by the Renaissance master seemingly sold to a Russian buyer
NewsAuctions
Rare Rembrandt withdrawn from Sotheby's New York auction
The sale's other big ticket item, Young man holding a roundel (around 1470-80) by Sandro Botticelli, estimated to sell in excess of $80m, is still included
NewsObject lessons
Object lessons: from a rare outing for an Old Testament Rembrandt to a Bernini double act
Our pick of highlights from New York's Master Week sales
AnalysisArt market
Lockdown home decorators boost New York's Americana week auctions
Chippendale-style furniture, elephant tureens and a broadside edition of the Declaration of Independence were in demand at the sales series last week
NewsArt market
Why Sotheby's $80m Botticelli continues to mystify experts
Star lot of upcoming New York Master Week sales is set to smash previous auction record for the Early Renaissance painter
NewsAuctions
Rejected Tintin cover design sets record for comic book art with €3.2m auction price
Sale of controversial 1936 painting criticised by organisation behind artist Hergé’s estate
CommentDiary of an art historian
Auction houses have finally entered the Amazon age—and I’m addicted
I thought I’d kicked my online art and antiques buying habit but too much lockdown screen time has been my undoing
InterviewArt market
A crisis hits the art market once a decade. What is different this time? Christie's president Dirk Boll assesses the impact of the pandemic
As his new book is published, the auction house chief compares coronavirus fallout to previous economic disasters
NewsArt market
European auction houses weather crisis as customers spend millions on art online
Expecting the worst, French, German and Austrian auction houses have been surprised by how well sales have held up through the pandemic
NewsAuctions
Warhol, Oldenburg, Fontana: star works from Christo and Jeanne-Claude collection go on the block
Proceeds from the pieces sold at Sotheby’s Paris in February will go towards the artist duo's estate
CommentArt Market Eye
Asian art market flies in the face of coronavirus
Why are Asians in hot pursuit of art, and what are they buying?
NewsArt market
Grime stars: paintings set new records for Domenico Ghirlandaio and Jan Davidsz de Heem despite being covered in dirt
Christie's end of season Old Masters evening sale in London totals £22.8m, despite last-minute withdrawal of Bernadino Luini's Nativity
CommentAfrican art market
Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu’s greatest work is much loved by the art market—but it should mean more to art history too
Editions of the Anyanwu sculpture always attract attention at auction, but the legacy of the work and its maker are largely ignored both in his home country and the international art scene
Ayodeji Rotinwa