Frida Kahlo’s (1907-1954) intimate oil painting has sold for a staggering $34.9 million (£25.9 million) at Sotheby’s New York, setting a new auction record for the most expensive artwork by a Latin American artist. It is significant as one of her final self-portraits, which candidly reveals the artist’s distress over her husband Diego Rivera’s (1886-1957) public affair with friend and famed actress Maria Félix (1914-2002).
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Professional rugby player Maro Itoje has ventured into the contemporary art auction world, with his guest curation of the upcoming ‘Contemporary Curated’ sale at Sotheby’s London. Itoje is one of English rugby’s biggest stars: he is blindside flanker for English Championship club Saracens and the England National team, and has won three European Rugby Champions Cups with his club, and three Six Nations titles with England, as well as being named European player of the year in 2016. However, Itoje is by no means only absorbed in the world of rugby. He has a keen interest in art, particularly contemporary Nigerian art, so his involvement in Sotheby’s upcoming contemporary auction seems the perfect fit.
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Sotheby’s have secured a monumental sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti for an unconventional “sealed bid” sale. As part of the modern and contemporary art evening sales in New York, the confidential bidding ran from 20-27 October 2020.
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Sold to the highest bidder! Yesterday Sotheby’s shareholders approved the astonishing $3.7 billion (£3 billion) sale of the auction house to Patrick Drahi, the billionaire telecoms executive and art collector. Continue reading
Three shareholders have filed lawsuits against Sotheby’s in attempts to stop Patrick Drahi’s acquisition of the auction house. Continue reading
This week French-Israeli telecoms billionaire, Patrick Drahi, bought Sotheby’s auction house for a staggering $3.7 billion (£2.9 billion). Drahi’s purchase returns the auction house to private ownership after 30 years of public trading on the stock market. Continue reading
On Tuesday evening, a rare oil painting by Claude Monet sold for a record-breaking $110.7 (£85.7 million) at a Sotheby’s sale in New York. Continue reading
A life-size portrait by Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun has sold for a staggering $7.18 million (£5.5 million) at Sotheby’s Old Masters sale in New York. Continue reading
A US$12 million (£9 million) painting sold under duress in Nazi-occupied Austria will go under the hammer at Sotheby’s this month. Continue reading
The judgment in Jeddi v Sotheby’s and others handed down in June, determined competing claims to ownership of a £12 million early Islamic rock crystal jar, and provides guidance on agency, bailment and the immediate right to possession. Continue reading
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