Auctions

Sotheby's to sell art belonging to Brazil's Lady of the Resistance

The journalist and collector Niomar Moniz Sodré Bittencourt, who established the Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro, was exiled after speaking out against Brazil's military dictatorship

Record for Indian painting at auction smashed by $13.7m M.F. Husain

The work sold at Christie’s New York, almost quadrupling its $3.5m high estimate, as South Asian Modern art crests a wave

Censorship and Australia’s Venice Biennale pavilion, a controversial AI auction, and Elizabeth Catlett in Washington—podcast

What might the fallout be after Creative Australia’s unpopular decision to cancel Khaled Sabsabi’s project? Plus, AI art beyond this week’s open letter and a chat about Catlett’s terracotta sculpture ‘Tired’

The Saunders collection will be a real test of the Old Master market

Due to be sold at Sotheby's New York in May, the group of works includes pieces by Guardi and Canaletto and is billed as the "most valuable single-owner collection of Old Master paintings ever to appear at auction"

US taste for Surrealism boosts marathon £130m Christie’s auction

Double-header sale in London last night was led by René Magritte with strong prices for Paul Delvaux and Tamara de Lempicka

Christie's AI art auction outpaces expectations, bringing in more than $728,000

In all, 28 of the Augmented Intelligence sale's 34 lots found buyers, including pieces by Refik Anadol, Charles Csuri and Harold Cohen

London contemporary art auctions kick off with £5.4m record for Lisa Brice, despite geopolitical chaos

Last night's sale at Sotheby's, which totalled £62.5m, also included a £4.3m Banksy sold by blink-182 frontman Mark Hoppus

Sotheby's secures most valuable single owner collection of Old Master paintings to come to auction

Around 60 works estimated for a total of $80m to $120m from the collection of Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders will be offered in New York this May

Camille Claudel bronze discovered in Paris apartment sells for €3.1m

The price is the second-highest ever paid for a work by the French sculptor

Technologyinterview

Generative artists unite to back research into degenerative disease

For the Cure3 exhibition at Bonhams, to raise money for research into Parkinson’s disease, contributing artists Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn talk about the cause

Thousands call on Christie’s to cancel AI art auction in open letter

The sale has sparked backlash from critics who say AI programmes exploit human artists

Records set for Arab artists at Sotheby’s debut Saudi Arabia auction

The “Origins” sale totalled $17.28m and achieved a sell-through rate of 67% by lot

Wolfgang Tillmans collection to be sold at Christie's

The 15 works, on the market for the first time since they were bought by an anonymous collector, will be on show this week before being sold in March

Christie's pulls El Greco work from sale after Romanian government intervenes

Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said a legal team is pursuing the recovery of the painting once owned by King Carol I of Romania

Justin Sun, the buyer of Sotheby’s $6m banana, sues megacollector David Geffen over $78m Giacometti sculpture

Sun claims he is the rightful owner of Le Nez, which is purportedly now in Geffen’s possession in New York

Watercolour submitted online to Christie’s found to be by Turner

The Venetian lagoon painting—submitted by a member of the public to Christie's digital appraisal service—comes to auction in New York with an estimate of $300,000 to $500,000

Art marketanalysis

Lingering market slump prompts the question: is art no longer a 'must have' for the wealthy?

At last November's evening auctions in New York, eyes were on a $6.2m banana, but overall sales were down 41% on the previous year

Our pick of the January sales: a saintly Warhol and an early Indonesian Modern masterpiece

Also starring this month are an Escher paradox print and a Venice watercolour by John Singer Sargent

Art marketinterview

‘One auction house will fold, as will more fairs’: experts give their art market 2025 predictions

We asked the art world’s movers and shakers what's in store for the next 12 months

Camille Claudel sculpture discovered in abandoned Paris apartment

The bronze is now expected to sell for up to €2m when it is auctioned in Orléans in February

Comic book page—featuring Deadpool's first appearance—sells for nearly $1m at auction

This is the second most valuable page of comic art ever sold at auction

Art marketanalysis

Small but mighty: sales under $10,000 defy market

The lower-priced sector is also the fastest growing, doubling over the past decade

The $6.2m banana, Frank Auerbach remembered, Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s photographs of addiction in South Africa—podcast

Exploring this week’s New York auctions, which included Maurizio Cattelan’s now-infamous fruit, plus a tribute to the late German-British artist Auerbach and a chat with Sobekwa about a work from his powerful series, on view at the UK’s Sainsbury Centre

Rediscovered Emily Carr painting bought for $50 sells for 5,000 times original price

The Carr painting was one of the star attractions at the Heffel Fine Art Auction House’s marquee autumn sale in Toronto, alongside works by Tom Thomson, Marcelle Ferron, Kenojuak Ashevak and Chief 7IDANsuu James Hart

Art marketanalysis

Beyond the banana: Sotheby's contemporary art night nets a modest $112m

Despite Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian selling for a staggering $6.2m, The Now and contemporary auctions in New York made 63% less than last year

Magritte gets star billing at Christie's $410m 'solid as a rock' evening auction

The interior designer Mica Ertegun's Surrealist L'empire des lumières sold for a record $121.1m in New York last night, with a new high also set for Ed Ruscha

Phillips's contemporary art auction in New York, hampered by Basquiat flop, brings in slim $44.2m

The night’s total take took a major hit when it was revealed that its second-biggest lot, a Basquiat self-portrait, had failed to sell

Art marketanalysis

Sotheby's New York delivers white glove auction of Sydell Miller collection but patchy Modern evening sale

Kicking off November's marquee evening sales, the house brought in a total of $268.6m from 49 lots

Art marketfeature

Auction houses expect this month's New York sales to bring in as much as $1.6bn

The most valuable lot of the week is a record-breaking Magritte with a third-party guarantee, but the most talked-about is a conceptual still life by Maurizio Cattelan