Auctions

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

Sotheby's will sell Christo's preparatory works for Arc de Triomphe wrap

Proceeds from exhibition will go towards funding the monumental Paris project

'An opportunity for bargain hunters' or a waste of time? Italy relaxes stringent export laws for Old Masters and antiques worth less than €13,500

Lower-value older works and those by artists who died less than 50 years ago no longer need an export licence to leave the country—but the process can still be slow

England may be through to the Euro finals, but Sotheby's Old Master paintings sale scores an own goal

The auction house's £17.2m offering in London tonight was only 57% sold, overshadowed by the football match

Three women, two cities, and a sea of Asian bidders—Christie's London to Paris sale delivers 'strongest summer season' since 2017

All but one of the four auctioneers conducting the £153.6m marathon 20th- and 21st-century evening sale were women

Lucian Freud's portrait of David Hockney fetches £14.9m in strong hybrid sales at Sotheby’s in London

Asian bidders and British art boosted figures to make auction house's highest summer total since 2018

Forgotten Fragonard painting, deemed 'worthless' by its owners, fetches £6.6m at auction

Philosopher Reading is now the third most expensive work by the Rococo artist to sell at auction

Canadanews

Works by women artists reach new heights in Canadian auction

Two canvases by Carr blew past their estimate to become among the highest auction prices paid for her work, while a painting by 92-year-old Rita Letendre set a record for the artist

Blast off! Painting by David Bowie sells for more than $87,000 in online auction

The painting was found in an Ontario thrift shop and purchased for just five Canadian dollars

Records set for Cinga Samson, Avery Singer, Vija Celmins, Titus Kaphar and Julie Curtiss at Phillips's $118.2m evening sale

Auction house chose to hold its 20th century and contemporary art evening sale in New York during what is traditionally the London season due to "detonated" calendar

Chinese gold sculpture breaks German auction record at €14m—almost triple the previous high

A Chinese collector bought the 15th century gold and bronze Ming-dynasty sculpture of the god Vajrabhairava earlier today