Auctions

Art marketanalysis

Tiepolo and Giovanni di Paolo spark excitement in underpowered Christie’s Old Master sale

Auction raised more than last year but supply still limited as Brexit-dominated general election looms

Rare Tahitian painting by Gauguin sells for €9.5m at Artcurial in Paris

Te Bourao II, which went to an international collector, was on loan to the Met in New York for ten years

Object Lessons: the best of London Art Week

From a miracle scene seized by Nazis to a pensive painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, our pick of highlights from this week's auctions and fairs

Portrait commissioned by Charles Dickens, unseen for a century, goes on sale at Sotheby's London

The artist William Powell Frith 'almost collapsed' at the honour of being commissioned by the famous writer to paint his heroine Kate Nickleby

Rediscovered Rubens to star in Sotheby's Old Masters sale in New York

Painting depicting the Holy Family in an evening landscape has been owned by a Manhattan family for more than 60 years

At $6.8m, Picasso hits the high mark at Toronto sale

Portrait of Dora Maar eclipses other auction offerings at Heffel

Art marketanalysis

Randomness rules New York's $42m American art sales

Small works won out at Sotheby's and Christie's as top lots went for their low estimates or were withdrawn

Auctionsanalysis

New York's autumn sales were subdued but not necessarily septic

Overall sales were down by around 30% but beyond the disappointing headline figures, women and minority artists shone

Banksynews

Banksy’s The Drinker withdrawn from Sotheby’s sale after rival artist claims ownership

Sculpture—estimated at £1m—was removed from the street by Andy Link in 2004 but later “liberated” from his East End garden

Banksynews

Artist who ‘kidnapped’ Banksy's The Drinker claims ownership ahead of Sotheby's sale

Andy Link says sculpture for which he demanded £5,000 in ransom was later stolen from him. Banksy’s former dealer says otherwise

Podcastspodcast

Anselm Kiefer interview. Plus, New York auction 'gigaweek'

We talk to German artist Anselm Kiefer about his new works inspired by String Theory and ask expert Scott Reyburn why the art market is treading water. Produced in association with Bonhams, auctioneers since 1793

Hammer Time: Sotheby's picks up the pace during a sluggish art week with $270.7m contemporary art sale

Record prices were set for Charles White, Brice Marden, and Wayne Thiebaud, while a Clyfford Still painting prompted a prolonged bidding war

Hosted and directed by Margaret Carrigan. Filmed and edited by Travis Wood. Produced by Helen Stoilas

Carved from a youth centre's walls, Keith Haring mural sells at Bonhams New York for $3.86m

The Grace House Mural becomes the first and only such site-specific work by the artist to be sold at auction

Uncertainty hangs over Para Site’s fundraising auction as Hong Kong protests escalate

The non-profit art space derives half its annual income from the charity gala which last year raised a record HK$7.8m

UK buyer bags Artemisia Gentileschi painting for a record €4.8m in Paris

Work depicting Roman heroine Lucretia was in a private collection for 40 years

Two Dutch museums join forces to buy rare, $3m Van Gogh painting at Sotheby's New York

Work acquired by Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and the Drents Museum in Assen is one of few to survive from the artist's visit to Drenthe

Hammer Time: records set but reserves remain low at Christie's post-war and contemporary art sale

Ed Ruscha's visual pun Hurting the Word Radio #2 rose to $46m, a new world record for the artist, but most lots barely reached their estimate in a slow sales season

Hosted and directed by Margaret Carrigan. Filmed and edited by Travis Wood. Produced by Helen Stoilas

Hammer Time: consistency and caution are key at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern evening sale

The newly private auction house led the night's lots with its known money-maker Claude Monet, and set a world record for the Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka

Hosted and directed by Margaret Carrigan. Filmed and edited by Travis Wood. Produced by Helen Stoilas

'The complicated history of Boccioni sculpture is no barrier to record price at Christie's in New York'

Futurist bronze sculpture cast from another bronze in the 1970s sells for $16.2m—four times its estimate

Hammer Time: Christie's Impressionist and Modern evening sale November 2019

In our new video series, deputy art market editor Margaret Carrigan recaps the highlights of New York's billion-dollar auction week

Hosted and directed by Margaret Carrigan. Filmed and edited by Travis Wood. Produced by Helen Stoilas
Auctionsanalysis

Countdown to the auction block: one Rodin's journey from consignment to sale room

How a work of art comes to auction is far from a simple process and its place in the eventual sale order is crucial

Art marketpreview

Confidence may be low, but New York's auctions are aiming high

Can the quality of the smaller works coming up during "gigaweek" quell economic jitters?

For sale: two Van Gogh paintings come up at Sotheby’s New York next week

One of the works was looted by the Nazis from Jewish collector Jacques Goudstikker, but is now being sold by his heir after restitution

a blog by Martin Bailey

A portrait of Rembrandt sold for more than 30 times its estimate—could it be by the Dutch master himself?

High price for painting at Christie’s in New York last week is prompting speculation but expert says his money is on Isaac de Jouderville

Banksynews

How Banksy is vying for control of resales as his market goes ape

Stunt suspicions swirl after Sotheby’s auction sees 2009 work by street artist sell for far more than its £2m high estimate

'An invaluable resource' for provenance research: German pre-1945 auction catalogues are published online

The database includes 9,000 catalogues from more than 390 auction houses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Billionaires battle it out over the Lalannes at Sotheby’s in Paris

Jose Mugrabi and Antoine Arnault among collectors bidding at "white glove" sale of works by François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne