Auctions

Caspar David Friedrich sketchbook to be sold in Berlin proposed for national heritage list

The auction house, Grisebach, says the sketchbook’s candidacy for the list will not affect plans for today’s sale

Art marketanalysis

Works by Canadian abstractionist Jean-Paul Riopelle rack up $8m at Heffel’s evening sale in Toronto

The two-part auction, coinciding with the centenary of Riopelle's birth, took in $17.2m in total

Battle of the Henry Moore heads: rare sculptures with estimates of more than £2m go on the block

Sotheby’s is selling an alabaster piece while Bonhams’ early carving is made from ironstone

What did the New York auctions reveal about the state of the art market?

Plus, experimental art from the Eastern Bloc and a sculptural installation by Terry Adkins

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Climate activists disrupt Christie's auction in New York

Two activists affiliiated with the group Extinction Rebellion took to the rostrum during a sale of works on paper

Phillips’s $154.6m New York double-header is both just good enough—and historically successful

The house’s two-part auction fell short of the low estimate but still became its second-best showing ever by dollar value

Brisk Sotheby's Modern evening sale in New York delivers moderate results

The auction, spanning Monet to Miró, made $190.3m—just above its low estimate—and was preceded by the record-breaking sale of a Ferrari car

End of an era? Jussi Pylkkänen's departure reveals much about today’s art market

The star auctioneer is leaving Christie's after 38 years to share his experience "with a new generation of collectors"

Sotheby's sale of Emily Fisher Landau's collection brings modest result, despite $139m Picasso portrait

The evening's total take of $406.4m was a sign of a stability—albeit one under-girded by guarantees and third-party backing—in a jittery market

Christie's 21st century evening sale falls short of expectations, opening New York's autumn auction cycle on uneasy note

Several 'wet paint' works soared while multiple blue-chip lots underperformed, defying conventional market wisdom

Auctionsanalysis

How will New York’s auctions perform? London’s Frieze Week evening sales offer hints

Results from London’s premier autumn auctions suggest price now matters as much as prestige

Art marketanalysis

What makes a masterpiece? It depends who is selling…

Traditionally reserved for an artist’s greatest works, the term “masterpiece” now appears routinely in auction catalogues, and may just mean a work is good, novel—or expensive

Christie’s to auction Pechstein painting after settlement reached with heir

Hilda Graetz sold 'Still Life With a Cup' to fund her new life in South Africa after her art dealer father died in a concentration camp

‘Very short-sighted’: Swiss museum’s decision to sell Cézanne paintings sparks outrage

Three works will be going up for auction at Christie's New York—but with an unusual caveat

Art marketanalysis

Lacklustre results for highly anticipated auction from Long Museum collection in China—experts weigh in on why

Despite a slew of records set for Western art in Asia, including new highest prices for Modigliani and Mark Bradford, the Hong Kong sale made below its low estimate

Julie Mehretu painting sets new auction record for an African-born artist

The work by the Ethiopian-American artist was sold by Sotheby's Hong Kong for $9.32m with fees

'Rediscovered' Rembrandt could make £15m at Sotheby's London this December

The Biblical scene was recently offered at auction for just €10,000

Does coverage of Sotheby's Freddie Mercury sales show that auctions are perfect TikTok fodder?

Videos of bidding battles for the Queen frontman's possessions resulted in the auction house doubling its TikTok followers in less than a week

Art acquired by the late ‘Ghostbusters’ director Ivan Reitman could fetch more than $60m at Christie’s New York

The collection is led by Pablo Picasso’s Femme endormie (1934) which the auction house estimates will sell for between $25m and $35m

Booksreview

A deep dive into the history of China’s art market

From the devastation of the Cultural Revolution to the transformation of the contemporary art scene

Collection of late California patron Chara Schreyer could net more than $70m at Sotheby’s in New York

In sales spanning this year and next, hundreds of works that once belonged to the SFMoMA trustee will be offered, including a box in a suitcase by Duchamp

Private museum's collection of ancient arms and armour could bring in £22m at Christie’s

The privately-owned Mougins Museum of Classical Art closed in August for a revamp to rebrand as what has been described as Europe’s "first major museum dedicated to work by women artists"

A sculpture consigned by Gérard Depardieu and a Chinese vase with dragon fish handles: our pick of September's auctions

Plus a painting by Hedda Sterne, one of the few women to make her mark in New York’s Abstract Expressionism movement

New York auction houses' calendars align with Armory Week

Bonhams is offering a Robert Colescott work in a single-lot sale, while Sotheby’s online fashion series includes Princess Diana’s famous black-sheep sweater

Couple behind Shanghai's Long Museum to sell part of their collection at Sotheby's

Paintings by Modigliani and Kusama among the 50 works to be offered in Hong Kong—with more potentially coming to the block in New York

Phillips launches Dropshop, selling newly commissioned works direct from artist to collector

The auction house is pursuing the primary market with the new digital platform, which will sell monthly "drops" of limited editions by artists such as Cj Hendry

Phillips launches annual David Hockney auction in London

The standalone sales come off the back of numerous high-profile projects involving the British artist

Auctionsanalysis

Long-lost canvas by Flemish painter Michael Sweerts propels Christie's Old Master sale in London to its best result in seven years

The auction house made £53.9m (with fees) from 38 lots, and saw a new record established for Fra Angelico

Auctionsanalysis

Selective buying leaves 35% of lots unsold at Sotheby's Old Master sale in London

The £39.4m auction was led by a 15th-century painting by the Master of the Baroncelli Portraits at £7.9m, while a new record was set for a work by William Hogarth—albeit sold to a single bid