Latest News Articles by Anne Crane
King of the saleroom – medieval chess piece sells at £540,000
08 July 2016A medieval chess piece produced one of the most exciting moments in Sotheby’s Treasures auction in London.
Japanese woodblock wonder sets record in Paris auction
30 June 2016Crowning the white-glove success of Japanese works from the Portier collection in Paris was the sale of this signature portrait print by Kitagawa Utamaro for €600,000 (£500,000).
Vaizey places export bar for Florentine pietre dure table top
27 June 2016Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has placed a temporary export bar on a 17th century Florentine pietre dure table top. It was sold in December at Sotheby’s in London for £3m.
Louvre buys duc de Berry’s tomb mourners at Paris auction
24 June 2016Two finely carved marble figures of mourners from the tomb of Jean de France, the duc de Berry (1340-1416) brother of King Charles V of France were secured by the Louvre for €4.4m (£3.67m) at Christie’s Paris last week.
Christie’s open show of famous lots to mark 250 years in business
23 June 2016Christie’s have launched their 250th anniversary celebrations with the opening of Defining British Art, a month-long loan exhibition of works that were sold through the auction house over the course of its history.
Old Master trumps cautious estimate in Paris and soars to €1.56m
20 June 2016A painting catalogued as from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens soared past a cautious four-figure estimate to take €1.56m (£1.3m) at a recent Paris auction.
Steinway piano leads key sales of musical instruments
14 June 2016One of the main attractions at Piano Auctions’ upcoming quarterly auction at the Conway Hall in London on June 23 is this Steinway with celebrity status.
Duchamp sale sets new record with national treasure
09 June 2016A painting by Marcel Duchamp sold for €1.243m (£1.035m including premium) at Artcurial in Paris on June 6.
Belgian trade unite for 'Cultures'
02 June 2016Tribal art will be making a splash in Brussels around the city’s Sablon area, as it is does every summer, but this year it will be as part of a new cross-cultural promotion.
Paris museum secures rare piece of Akyè art
31 May 2016The Musée du Quai Branly, the dedicated museum for tribal art which opened in Paris in 2006, has been a key factor in boosting the French capital as a world centre for ethnography in both scholarly and commercial terms.
More deaccessions from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
16 May 2016Christie’s are to sell another major slice of deaccessioned material from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, just under a year after they held a dedicated auction devoted to a dispersal from the Met’s holdings of English furniture and works of art.
Books with a twist – Charles Dickens first editions emerge in Wolverhampton
29 April 2016Interesting oddities that were ironed out in subsequent editions bump up demand when it comes to book collecting. A good example of this is coming up at Wolverhampton auction house Cuttlestones on May 6.
Musée Delacroix buys portrait of George Sand at Fontainebleau auction
21 April 2016A portrait by Eugène Delacroix redolent with associations to Nineteenth century French Romanticism has been secured by the Paris museum dedicated to his work.
Records broken as Sotheby's Hong Kong spring series comes to a close
07 April 2016The Sotheby’s Hong Kong Spring series of sales closed today chalking up a total of HK$502.8m/USD$64.5m/GB£242.3m.
Fine Tudor oak panel fetches king’s ransom
10 March 2016Very much the pièce de résistance of Bonhams’ first oak interior sale held in their New Bond Street rooms was the final lot of the day, a 23 x 17in (58.5 x 44.5cm) Tudor oak panel carved in high relief with a portrait of a king holding an orb and sceptre, thought to represent King John.
Unique variant of Paul Iribe’s Nautile armchair takes €180,000 in Paris
26 February 2016Paul Iribe’s ‘Nautile’ armchair is one of the most striking proto-Art Deco designs, with its sleek swept-back lines and low armrests formed as a tight nautilus shell spiral.
Wilkinson repackages Bonhams’ sales in Knightsbridge and Edinburgh
19 February 2016Bonhams are to launch a new range of monthly Home & Interiors auctions in both their Knightsbridge and Edinburgh rooms.
De Lamerie tureen takes $90,000
12 February 2016This 18½in (47cm) George II silver soup tureen by the goldsmith Paul de Lamerie featured in Doyle’s latest sale of furniture, works of art and Old Master paintings in New York.
BRAFA 2016 – bigger and better
05 February 2016BRAFA, the Brussels art fair, opened its doors last month for its 61st edition, boosted in space and exhibitors by a new extension.
Diggelmann doubles auction high for a ski poster
03 February 2016A new auction high for a ski poster was established at Christie’s South Kensington’s annual Ski sale, held on January 21, when this 1934 colour lithograph advertising the attractions of the Swiss resort of Gstaad sold for £62,000 (plus premium).