Last Thursday, a carved wood and paper globe dating to the 1550s or 1560s sold at Hansons Auctioneers for £116,000 against a pre-sale estimate of £20,000-30,000, a huge sum considering the owner had purchased it recently for just £150.
Continue reading
The Mexican government has attempted to halt two auctions of Pre-Columbian artefacts in Paris. In a letter sent to the French Ministry, the Mexican Embassy expressed its “deep concern” about the legality of the sales.
Continue reading
You may remember the life-sized painted lions that landed in London and other cities across the globe this summer as part of the Tusk Trust Lion Trail. The trail brought to life the stories of these iconic predators as well as the people who work tirelessly to protect them. Curated by Chris Westbrook, the trail was in situ for six weeks over the summer and covered a number of international iconic locations.
Continue reading
Next month, Christie’s will sell a watercolour on paper landscape scene by Vincent Van Gogh with an estimate of $20-30 million. Christie’s played a pivotal role in facilitating the negotiations of this sale, which involves three different parties. Two are the descendants of Jewish collectors who previously owned the work during the Nazi era and sold the watercolour under duress, and the other is the heirs of the most recent owner, Texas businessman Edwin Cox (1921-2020).
Continue reading
‘Big John’, the largest triceratops skeleton ever discovered, is coming to auction at Paris auction house Binoche et Giquello next month. The 66-million-year-old fossil is estimated to sell for a staggering €1.2 million to €1.5 million (£1 million to £1.5 million).
Continue reading
Seven new artist records were set at Christie’s ‘Old Masters Sale’ this week, as well as a new record for a tiny drawing by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) at ‘The Exceptional Sale’ in London. Christie’s specialist Clementine Sinclair explained that “this is a bigger sale than we would normally have, and I think that’s partly due to the fact we didn’t hold an Old Masters evening sale last July, so there was some pent-up demand of collectors wanting to sell.”
Continue reading
A rare painting by the iconic musician David Bowie (1947-2016) has been found languishing at a landfill in Canada. Cowley Abbott auction house is set to sell the vibrant work online with bidding already surpassing the original estimate of C$9000-$12,000 (£5200-£6900).
Continue reading
Christie’s is to become the first major auction house to sell a standalone NFT (Non-Fungible Token) work of art.
‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ (2021), a digital artwork by Beeple, will be auctioned online between 25 February and 11 March 2021. In a sign that Christie’s is charting new territory in the digital art market, it is offering Beeple’s work with an “unknown” estimate and bidding will start at US$100 (£72).
Continue reading
The art world is still catching its breath after a multi-record-breaking auction at Christie’s in New York netting US$832 million (£614 million) drew to a close on Friday 11 May 2018.
Artworks collected by the Artist Pension Trust (APT) will go under the hammer for the first time since it was founded 13 years ago.
Works from a star-studded list of artists will be auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York and London in March and April this year. The lineup includes pieces by David Shrigley, Iván Navarro and Bob and Roberta Smith and carries an estimated value of £255,000 to £370,500. Continue reading
Art Law & More 