Fine Art

Christie’s latest cross-category sale entitled The Artist’s Muse set the second highest ever auction price for a work of art when Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché (Reclining nude) sold at $152m (£104.8m).

A new auction record came for American pop artist Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) when 'Nurse' was knocked down at $85m (£58.6m) at Christie’s cross-category sale entitled The Artist’s Muse earlier this week.

Colnaghi, the venerable London Old Master dealership, is to merge with art dealers Coll & Cortés (London and Madrid).

A Rembrandt portrait sold in a £35m private sale negotiated by Sotheby’s will be staying in the UK after the overseas buyer withdrew their application to export the painting.

Two single-owner collections of Martinware – each exceptional in their own way – will appear for sale on either side of the Atlantic this autumn.

A small Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) sculpture bought at a Christie’s auction by The Pier Arts Centre in Orkney has now gone on display.

As part of their latest 20th Century & Decorative Art auction in Stansted Mountfitchet, Sworders sold this still life by the influential American photographer Irving Penn (1917-2009) for £61,000.

A John Constable (1776-1837) oil sketch drew prolonged competition at the latest auction held at Exeter saleroom Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood.

This painting, found by John Nye of Bloomfield, New Jersey saleroom Nye & Company Auctions leaning up against a cellar wall, became one of the sleepers of the year on September 22.

Three years after Christie’s sold an earlier version for £20m, a second version of John Constable’s (1776-1837) The Lock is being offered at Sotheby’s Old Master & British Paintings Sale on December 9.

Exeter saleroom Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood will offer a well-provenanced oil by John Constable (1776-1837) in their October 6 fine art sale.

Christie’s have announced a major highlight for the upcoming New York auction series. They are offering Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu couché (Reclining Nude) which they have estimated at in excess of $100m.

This recently rediscovered painting of Sir Winston Churchill by Walter Sickert (1860-1942) will be offered for sale for the first time at the 20/21 British Art Fair.

Police have released a CCTV image of a man they want to speak to in connection with a theft at the Masterpiece fair held in July at the Royal Hospital site in Chelsea.

The UK government has placed a temporary export bar on the earliest known on-the-spot depiction of Niagara Falls which sold at Christie’s South Kensington earlier this year.

West Sussex auctioneers Bellmans enjoyed considerable success on August 5, with a single-owner collection of around 30 Indian and Tibetan bronzes collected by a private vendor in the 1960s.

An impressive collection of pictures, studio pottery, furniture, personal effects and letters has been consigned to auctioneers Mitchells of Cockermouth from the estate of Mary Burkett, former director of Abbot Hall art gallery in Kendal.

Sotheby’s share price dropped by over 8% earlier this month after the company posted some weaker-than-expected second quarter results.

Two regional auctioneers – Halls of Shrewsbury and Bigwoods of Stratford-upon-Avon – are joining forces to conduct an ‘on-the-premises’ sale of art and antiques owned by the colourful publisher Felix Dennis (1947-2014).

A large marine painting by Charles Napier Hemy (1841-1917) showing oyster fishing off the Exmoor coast has been bought by The Museum of Somerset.