Auctions

Sotheby's launches sales in Germany—against stiff competition from local auction houses

The opulent Palais Oppenheim in Cologne will host exhibitions and sales from September. Sotheby's says move is due to growing client base in country, not Brexit

'Two cool older boys': Lucian Freud's portrait of David Hockney expected to sell for up to £12m

The work, which took four months to paint in 2002, will be auctioned at Sotheby's this month

Sotheby's to offer Tim Berners-Lee's original code for world wide web as (you guessed it) an NFT

Berners-Lee says NFTs are the "ideal way to package the origins behind the web"

Shoe designer's $18.9m 'Double Eagle' sets new world record for a coin at auction

The unique coin from 1933, part of a collection amassed by luxury shoe designer, Stuart Weitzman, sold at Sotheby's in New York yesterday

Bonhams consignor withdraws looted Nepalese sculptures from auction

The five figures of Hindu gods once adorned a gilded temple gateway in a Unesco world heritage site

Julie Mehretu donates major painting to Art for Justice Fund

The auction is estimated to raise $3m to $4m to support efforts to end mass incarceration

Sotheby's American Art auction saw some prices soar, while Christie's remained grounded

A museum sells art to balance its budget, a gorgeous Sargent goes unwanted, and a painting of a giraffe reaches high.

Newark Museum of Art’s much-disputed sale of Thomas Cole painting nets $988,000

Auction at Sotheby’s yields promising yet mixed results for museum’s drive to fund collections care

Christie's rounds off New York's auction week with strong $481m 20th century sale—and half of it was pre-sold through guarantees

The sale was led by a classic 1932 Picasso of Marie-Thérèse at $103.4m and set new records for Alice Neel, Grace Hartigan, Barbara Hepworth and Alighiero Boetti

Podcastspodcast

New York auctions: has the art market roared back to life?

Plus, Heather Phillipson at Tate Britain and Ackroyd and Harvey on Joseph Beuys

Sponsored byChristie's

Can Instagram bring the big auction houses into the digital age?

Christie's and Sotheby's are starting to embrace what the social media platform has to offer

Monet's $70m water lilies float to the top of Sotheby's three-auction marathon

The evening of sales in New York totalled $439.6m, with Basquiat's Versus Medici topping the contemporary art offering at $50.8m and a new record for Leonor Fini

Hands up who's bidding for classic post-war art? Picky response to Anne Marion's all-American collection reflects market's shifting tastes

Sotheby's auction of the Texan rancher's collection totalled $157.2m and set new records for Kenneth Noland, Larry Rivers and Richard Diebenkorn

Spotty performance for unseen Yayoi Kusama paintings at Bonhams New York—but works on paper soar off the block

Pieces came from the collection of late New York heart surgeon who befriended the artist in the 1960s

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

A $93.1m Basquiat and reams of records for hot young names kicks off New York auction week at Christie's

The $210.4m sale included new highs for contemporary artists like Mickalene Thomas, Jordan Casteel and Lynette Yiadom Boakye, while some established names fell flat

Leonardo da Vinci's bear pawtrait could make record for drawing by the artist

The work is expected to fetch up to £12m in a live sale at Christie's London this July

Charles I disposed of this Van Dyck portrait when he signed the sitter's death warrant. Now it is up for sale at Christie's

The 17th century painting of the Earl of Strafford, recently discovered to have been in the Royal collection, is expected to sell for up to £5m in London in July

Artists are expected to give away their work for charity. This new auction platform aims to give them something back in return

The Stand has been launched by former Sotheby's boss and will give 70% to artists, 20% to charity

Crypto-creep accelerates as Sotheby's accepts Ether and Bitcoin for $5m Banksy painting

The sale this month will be the first time the auction house has accepted cryptocurrency as payment for a physical work of art

Taxidermy flying kittens, Irish giants and Queen Victoria's knickers: the world of Viktor Wynd

The artist, writer and dealer is selling a selection of bizarre pieces from his London-based Museum of Curiosities on 6 May

Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu’s greatest work is much loved by the art market—but it should mean more to art history too

Editions of the Anyanwu sculpture always attract attention at auction, but the legacy of the work and its maker are largely ignored both in his home country and the international art scene

Gettin' biddy wit it: Will Smith handprint painting to appear alongside works by Hockney and Picasso in Dubai auction

Charity sale is in aid of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's "100 Million Meals" campaign

Christie's to offer Xu Beihong painting for £41m—highest estimate put on an Asian work by a Western auction house

It could become the most expensive Asian work sold by a Western auction house. Meanwhile, young contemporary names proved popular at last night's Sotheby's sale in Hong Kong

From heartstrings to purse strings: nostalgia and the art market

Sometimes the wistful memory of time long past is all one needs to spend a few hundred thousand.

Phillips starts 2021 sales with a 17% leg up on last year

Despite the “headwinds” of Covid-19 and an extended UK lockdown, the firm raised £24.8m in its three-city livestreamed auction

NFTnews

A grey single-pixel 'work' sells for $1.3m at Sotheby’s maiden NFT sale

Over 3,000 bidders purchased nearly 24,000 digital works in a three-day, multi-facted sale on Niftygateway