Auctions

Head over to Sotheby's in London for a chance to see Frida Kahlo's $30m self-portrait before it goes under the hammer

Hitting the block at Sotheby's next month, Diego y yo (Diego and I), painted in 1949, could become the most valuable Latin American work ever sold at auction

Young, emerging artists continue to dominate Frieze week auctions as Phillips sets seven records

Asian bidders set the pace again as several works sell for ten times their lower estimate at the auction house's 20th century and contemporary art evening sale. But are these prices sustainable?

Young female painters and bored apes turn heads at Christie's £64.6m auction

The first NFT to be sold at auction in Europe sells for £800,000, while collectors compete for emerging women artists, leaving more established names on the shelf

Banksy record leads a smash-hit Sotheby’s auction which sees young artists soar to extraordinary heights

Asian collectors were behind much of the high bidding for hot emerging artists including Jadé Fadojutimi, Ewa Juszkiewicz and Flora Yukhnovich

Banksynews

Banksy world record as shredded work sells to Asian collector for £18.6m at Sotheby's

A previous painting called Girl with Balloon was shredded live at a Sotheby's auction three years ago, the resulting work, Love is in the Bin, has now sold

Stunning $30m Van Gogh watercolour resurfaces at Christie’s New York following complex behind-the-scenes deal

The auction house—which estimates the painting at $30m—helped broker a deal between the seller and the descendants of two Jewish families who had it in the Nazi era

a blog by Martin Bailey
Banksynews

Was Banksy’s infamous shredded painting really created in 2006?

As work heads back to auction at Sotheby's, the provenance of the street artist’s Girl with Balloon is being questioned

Our pick of five lots from Sotheby’s Hong Kong sales — and what they tell us about the Asian art market

Millennial buyers boosted sales for Western artists, whose works accounted for $114m out of $185m

Another Botticelli hits the market: Sotheby's to sell Botticelli's The Man of Sorrows for in excess of $40m

Auction house will sell the painting in January and is dubbing it "The defining masterpiece of Botticelli's late career". But what exactly does that mean?

'No matter how wealthy you are, no one is above the law': New York court rejects Sotheby's attempt to dismiss suit alleging it helped collector evade tax on $27m of art

Attorney general claims the auction house created and used tax exemption certificates that falsely presented the buyer as an art dealer in order to dodge payments. Sotheby's says it will continue to contest the case

German auction of Latin American antiquities goes ahead, but many works fail to sell

Ambassadors from eight countries—Mexico, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Panama and Peru—whose heritage was included in the sale launched a united front against it, with calls for Unesco to intervene

Art marketanalysis

Young, monied and keen to gamble on art: the super power of Asian collectors

Asian buyers are now the biggest spenders at international auctions and these digitally-native collectors are happy to splurge online

Mexiconews

Mexico attempts to halt German auction of Pre-Colombian artefacts

More than 70 works designated as national heritage are due to be sold in Munich on 21 September

'A collector in dealer's clothes': Sotheby's to sell the collection of Richard L. Feigen

The sale of the New York dealer, who died earlier this year and was once a vocal critic of auction houses, will feature works from the 14th to 20th centuries

Christie's to sell €5m Chardin painting for the first time in nearly 200 years

Descendants of François Marcille will sell 27 paintings and drawings from his collection in Paris this November, including Woman Drawing Water from a Water Urn

Sotheby's wins 'dogfight' to sell $600m art collection of Harry and Linda Macklowe

Auction house will sell the 65 works, including $70m works by Rothko and Giacometti, in two standalone sales in November and next May

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

Let them buy cake! From Charles and Diana to Donald Trump, the auction stars of the wedding cake world

As a 40-year-old piece of icing and marzipan sells for £1,850, we look at the market for elderly baked goods (topped by a £15,000 biscuit)

Place your bids: Sotheby’s to auction 11 Picassos live from Bellagio in Las Vegas

The works, chosen by casino mogul Steve Wynn, will be auctioned as the entertainment group MGM Resorts moves to focus its art collection on "diversity and inclusion"

Crime news

Jailed diamond dealer and art collector Nirav Modi fights extradition to India on mental health grounds

Modi, who is currently held in Wandsworth Prison in London, is wanted for allegedly defrauding a state bank of £729m

Exuberant Van Gogh landscape—featuring his beloved olive and cypress trees—could well make $40m at Christie's New York

Always hidden away in private collections, the painting will probably sell to a someone in the Far East

a blog by Martin Bailey

Christie's to sell Texan oil tycoon Edward L. Cox's collection of Impressionist art

The collection is expected to make over $200m in New York in November

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

Let's bid: David Bowie album artwork for sale, direct from the artist who created it

A 120-lot online auction of Edward Bell's collection of designs, photographs and proofs starts today

Bellotto's view of Verona sells for record £10.5m at Christie's Old Master sale in London

Seven new artist records were set in tonight's auction, including for Georges de La Tour, while a second highest prices were set for female painters Angelica Kauffman and Artemisia Gentileschi

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