Later this month, Sotheby’s New York will auction an extremely rare Gorgosaurus skeleton, which is estimated to fetch as much as $8 million (£6.7 million). It marks the first time in history this vicious prehistoric species has come to auction.
Continue reading
In February 1972, a fire raged at the Veterans Foreign Wars building in New Paltz, New York. With emergency services distracted, a robbery occurred at the town’s historic district of Huguenot Street. Dozens of objects were stolen, including a pair of portraits by the prominent itinerant folk artist Ammi Phillips (1788-1865) depicting local residents Dirck D. Wynkoop (1738-1827) and his wife Annatje Erlinge (1748-1827). Exactly fifty years later, the portraits were rediscovered, and were put back on display at the Historic Huguenot Street.
Continue reading
Since 2016, billionaire real estate tycoon Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife Linda Burg have feuded in court over assets during their contentious divorce proceedings. Disagreeing on the value of their impressive art collection, the couple were ordered to sell off the coveted trove. Sotheby’s have now auctioned all 65 artworks for a staggering $922.2 million (£741.9 million) in total, making it the most valuable private collection ever sold at auction.
Continue reading
Ahead of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, Sotheby’s London will auction and exhibit rare British royal ephemera in a month-long programme in London. Queen Elizabeth II is Britain’s longest-reigning monarch at the age of 96, having ascended to the throne in 1953.
Continue reading
During the final three years of his life, French conceptual artist Yves Klein (1928-1962) created nine “empty zones” (invisible and intangible areas of empty space existing only in conceptual terms) which could only be purchased with pure gold. The buyer was then presented with a receipt, which could either be set on fire in a ritual between artist and owner, or preserve it, meaning that the immaterial purchase would be transferrable. One of these receipts is now coming up for sale at Sotheby’s, and its similarities to the modern-day NFT are so notable that Sotheby’s are going so far as to accept not pure gold, but cryptocurrency for it.
Continue reading
“Punk It!”, the first evening sale at Sotheby’s dedicated exclusively to CryptoPunk NFTs (non-fungible tokens), was mysteriously withdrawn at the request of the consignor. As the crowd enthusiastically gathered in New York, and the sale’s live-stream opened to viewers around the world, the seller tweeted “nvm [never mind], decided to hodl”.
Continue reading
Last week saw Sotheby’s sale of old master paintings bringing in a staggering total of $91 million (with buyer’s fees). Despite this being a considerable sum, it is in fact lower than the equivalent sale last year at Sotheby’s, which made $114.5 million. The auction included the much anticipated sale of Sandro Botticelli’s The Man of Sorrows (circa 1500) which, it was revealed earlier this month through the use of technical analysis, has a hidden composition of a Madonna and Child underneath.
Continue reading
Buy one, get one free! Infrared imaging of Sandro Botticelli’s (c. 1445-1510) ‘Man of Sorrows’ has unexpectedly revealed a long-lost Madonna and Child composition hidden underneath the masterful brushstrokes. Sotheby’s is due to sell the painting in New York later this month with a staggering guarantee of $40 million (£29 million).
Continue reading
Following the announcement earlier this year that Sotheby’s would sell the Honresfield Library, a collection which includes important works relating to the Brontë sisters, the Friends of the National Libraries (FNL) organisation has raised a staggering £15 million to acquire the collection for the U.K.
Continue reading
An oil painting by the English Romantic landscape painter John Constable (1776-1837) sold in an auction in Cincinnati, Ohio, last year as a copy, making £40,000 against a pre-sale estimate of only $1,000-2,000. It has now been authenticated as being a genuine Constable. It will be sold in Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings December sale with an impressive estimate of £3-5 million.
Continue reading
Art Law & More 