Auction houses

Bonhams's big buying spree continue with acquisition of US auction house Skinner

Just two months after buying the Nordic firm Bukowskis, the private-equity-owned auction house is bolstering its presence across the Pond

Christie’s Middle East chairman Michael Jeha is stepping down after 23 years at the end of this month

Jeha began his career at the auction house as an intern in the Impressionism department

'How canny auction houses and advisory firms are turning a generation of Amazon shoppers into art collectors'

The middle market, traditionally the art world’s unloved child, offers treats galore

Rubens could become most expensive work of art ever sold in Poland

Portrait of a Lady by the artist and his workshop is expected to sell for up to £4m at DesaUnicum in Warsaw next month

Art marketinterview

From Taiwanese white goods entrepreneurs to the Nanking shipwreck cargo: Colin Sheaf on the meteoric growth of the Asian auction world

As the Chinese art specialist steps back at Bonhams, he reflects on 50 years in the auction world as it went from provincial to global

Pensioners revolt: Patrick Drahi winds up Sotheby’s ‘defined benefit’ pension plan, and former employees are not happy

Ex-staff are now considering legal action, claiming they were not kept informed of changes to the scheme

How auction houses became the big winners of the pandemic

With the forced shift to online sales due to Covid-19 restrictions, global sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips boomed in 2021, with an increased focus on luxury goods as the rich get richer

Four years since companies in the UK began revealing salary data, the art world’s gender pay gap remains

Auction houses continue to show little sign of progress and lag behind public sector institutions

Bonhams buys Nordic auction house Bukowskis

The private-equity-owned auction house's acquisition of the Swedish firm is a first move in its bid to extend its global network

Shots fired: South Korea's galleries plan sale to 'warn' auction houses against speculation and 'extreme capitalist logic'

Seoul's biggest auction houses have allegedly violated an agreement made with Galleries Association Korea to ensure "healthy balance" within the art market

Christie’s 2021 sales total $7.1bn, with $150m from NFTs and $103.4m from the most expensive work sold this year, a Picasso

Results are the highest since 2015 and come in just behind Sotheby’s $7.3bn. Hong Kong expansion plan will continue despite Beijing crackdown, as auction house "separates what is political and what is business"

Sotheby’s sales for 2021 surpass $7.3bn, the highest total in company history

The firm’s sales were bolstered by a sharp increase in online bidders, who accounted for 92% of all bids this year

Art smuggled from junta-controlled Myanmar to be auctioned in New York this week

Proceeds from Artists Against Tyranny auction at Jane Lombard Gallery will support pro-democracy movement in junta-controlled Myanmar

Robert Bociaga

Art advisors Gurr Johns buys (another) auction house, 'catering to an under-loved sector of the market for works of art under $100,000'

The firm is buying the London-based books and works on paper specialist Forum Auctions—it previously bought Dreweatts and Bloomsbury for £1.25m in 2017

Art marketanalysis

Can an art market wild about young 'red-chip' artists and NFTs still value blue-chip, white male masters? Answer: Yes, for now

New York's "gigafortnight" sales of the Cox and Macklowe collections showed there is still a market for classics—even while a Beeple sells for $29m to a tweeting tech entrepreneur

Strong prices for female painters and young artists—but Francis Bacon's Pope sells to the guarantor—at Phillips's $137.9m auction in New York

The 20th century and contemporary art evening sale saw stiff competition for works by Shara Hughes, Joan Mitchell, Amy Sherald and Cecily Brown

New app artpass ID promises art market due diligence in one click—but does it really work?

Artpass ID has been created by Dutch tech entrepreneurs David Dehaeck and Nathalie Haveman, and has Rakhi Talwar, former global compliance head at Christie’s, on the team

Crypto wallets at the ready: Sotheby's to accept live bidding in ethereum on two Banksy works

The auction house made Banksy's world record for the pre-shredded work Love is in the Bin

Former Bonhams owner Robert Brooks dies

The ambitious auctioneer started out in car racing before going into art and antiques, eventually retiring to his farm near Exmoor to rear a herd of beef cattle

Art marketinterview

Need a 100-year-old Inuit parka made from seal guts? Dealer Peter Petrou to sell collection at Sotheby's

The London-based dealer of four decades is downsizing and having a 200-lot sale of contemporary art, Modern furniture, ethnographic art and antiquities

Art marketanalysis

Connoisseurship: is it time for a comeback?

When prices and cultural value are so easily confused, there is a case for the return of critical evaluation—in updated form

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

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-$10m for ClientEarth

Christie’s results for first half of 2021 show marked shift towards Asia, online and private sales—and female auctioneers

Auction sales, according to the analysts ArtTactic, are up 230% to a total of $5.9bn so far this year at the three major auction houses, Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips

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

Sotheby's doubles down on private sales with Monte-Carlo gallery

Seasonal two-storey space is newest addition to Monaco's growing commercial art scene

'Jobs for the boys… why I'm starting to feel old amid the new art world order'

The thrusting land of NFTs and tech nomads favours the young—and has yet to shake off the old ties of nepotism

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