Alfred Beit Foundation calls halt on auction of Old Masters after "proposal from private Irish donors"

Impressionist and Modern art auctions were in line with expectations

Auction house is contributing towards the artist’s production costs

Works by Rubens and Guardi are due to be auctioned in July to pay for upkeep of country home

Wooden sculpture that inspired Cubism fetches €5.5m in Paris

Around 2,500 works have been offered to cover company's debts

Museo Reina Sofia acknowledges eye-watering figure in press statement

David Walsh to sell Chris Ofili’s The Holy Virgin Mary along with pieces by Chapman Brothers, Damien Hirst and Jenny Saville

Proceeds will be shared between the Klimt Foundation and the heirs of the sitter

Museums and the trade want to put an end to the Catch-22 situation with Medici and Becchina

Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, Jørn Utzon Collection, 9-11 June

Doyle, New York, Belle Epoque: 19th- and 20th-century Decorative Arts, 3 June

Van Ham, Cologne, Asian Art, 6 June

Almost $2.5bn was spent on art in just six evening auctions last month, as the market is pushed to new levels for trophy works

And what can be done in the face of the country’s crippling political and economic crisis

Sotheby’s to auction looted painting by Liebermann that was returned to heirs last week

Sale of more than 2,000 works from Helge Achenbach's company expected to fetch between €3m and €4.5m

New fair—plus auctions and gallery shows—champion the reproducible image this week

Paddle8 moves to new premises in Mayfair

Most works at Christie’s auction on Wednesday were guaranteed to sell including Lucian Freud's reclining nude, which fetched an ample price

Sotheby’s totalled $379.7m for its contemporary art auction on Tuesday evening, while Christie's raised $705.9m the night before

Questions remain over authorship of panel that could be by Duccio