Auction houses

Can Paris snatch the art market crown from London?

The French capital seems resurgent, but other elements may intervene

Art marketanalysis

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

Art marketanalysis

Blue-chip artists move over, here come the red chips

Art as a blue-chip investment has had its day, as buyers chase the latest "red-chip" names

Brexitnews

As a Brexit deal is agreed, confused and resigned UK art world ponders life after leaving the European Union

Art dealers, shippers and auctioneers are unsure about how leaving the single market will impact their business—but there is a silver lining

Art marketinterview

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

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

Tech-savvy Sotheby's $5bn global sales beat Christie's $4.4bn in 2020

The two rivals have made record online and private sales as pandemic overturns traditional live auction format

Kabir Jhala. with additional reporting by Anna Brady
Diaryblog

Abso-lot-ely fabulous: Joanna Lumley tries out her auctioneering skills at Christie’s

Star sold seven illustrations in aid of Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity

Christie's sale in collaboration with cancelled La Biennale Paris fair flops

Online auction of art and antiques that would have been exhibited at Parisian fair achieves €1.5m with 21 of 91 lots sold

Gerhard Richter painting becomes most expensive western work ever sold at auction in Asia

The $29.2m painting sold at Sotheby's last night in a live-streamed contemporary art sale that took place in Hong Kong as Christie's held its marquee sale in New York

Art marketanalysis

Livestreamed auctions make gameshows of art, but where is the glamour?

Christie's and Sotheby's have rapidly adapted to 'bricks and clicks' sales, but they will need to do more to attract top-notch consignments and the experience-hungry generation

Cowan’s auction house returns indigenous war god sculpture to a Zuni Pueblo

The figures, carved by tribal members every winter and left in ceremonial shrines atop a mountain, have regularly been stolen and made their into museums and private collections throughout the US and Europe

Hedge fund manager Alexander Klabin buys stake in Sotheby's financing arm

Now the chairman of Sotheby's Financial Services, Klabin was previously approached to back a competing offer to block last year's buyout of the auction house by Patrick Drahi

Christie’s to hold marquee sales in New York in early October—but will Sotheby's follow suit?

With no Frieze Art Fair, contemporary art London sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips will now take place at the end of October, when Fiac is due to open in Paris

Art marketanalysis

In the first partnership of its kind, Phillips and Poly Auction set their sights on Hong Kong

Mutually beneficial collaborations between Western and Chinese auction houses are on the rise

Christie's exhibition of Black art is not about virtue signalling, curator says

Destinee Ross-Sutton has co-organised the online selling show Say It Loud which features works by 22 artists including Nelson Makamo and Yoyo Lander

Sotheby's racks up $2.5bn of sales so far this year—down 26% on 2019

Value of private sales at auction house remain around the same as last year at $575m but number of online auctions more than doubles

Art marketcomment

Can the art market be an ally in the fight for racial equality?

The industry remains subtly discriminatory and must abandon some obsolete ways if it is to truly change for the better

Let the distress sales begin: cash-strapped British Airways to sell some of its art collection

Airline has called in Sotheby's to value and sell at least ten pieces from its collection, which includes works by Damien Hirst, Bridget Riley and Peter Doig

Allan Schwartzman leaves Sotheby's following restructuring under new ownership

The co-founder of Art Agency, Partners will transition to a consultant role as Nina del Rio takes the helm of the auction house's advisory services

Art marketcomment

Auctions are like dating: you can do it online, but sparks only fly in the flesh

The coronavirus lockdown is boosting lower level virtual sales, but only a major live auction will kick-start the top end of the art market and revalidate prices

Christie's and China Guardian Auctions team up for sales and exhibitions series in Shanghai

Collaboration, dubbed 2020+, will take place in late September: Christie's says it is not a reaction to easing of coronavirus lockdown in Chinese city

Sotheby’s prepares to reopen galleries in New York and London

Chief executive Charles Stewart lays plans for the auction house’s flagship sales to be held in New York next month

Auctions: what will change, post-Covid-19?

In the era of social distancing, auctioneers may have to conduct sales to an empty room

Sotheby's launches Gallery Network online sales platform

Featuring galleries like Petzel, Lehmann Maupin and Jack Shainman, the buy-now marketplace transacts sales through the auction house at publicly listed prices

Christie's settles $16.7m in tax claims with New York District Attorney

Manhattan prosecutors say the auction house failed to collect sales tax on $189m in private sales over five years

Podcastspodcast

Can the art market weather the coronavirus storm?

Plus, Sean Scully talks about his favourite "lonely work", The Moroccans by Matisse in New York's Museum of Modern Art. Produced in association with Christie's

Hosted by Ben Luke. with guest speakers Anna Brady and Margaret Carrigan. Produced by Julia Michalska, David Clack and Aimee Dawson

Sotheby's postpones New York May 'gigaweek' sales due to coronavirus

Move is in line with Christie's and Phillips which postponed their sales to late June, but Sotheby's is yet to announce when its auctions will actually happen

Christie's and Phillips move May 'giga-week' New York sales to end of June due to coronavirus

Expanded 20th-century art week in US will swallow up London auctions; Sotheby's has yet to make a decision about its New York spring sales