Old Masters

The most viewed stories on this website over the last week included the results of an 18-month research project into a rare 17th century painting of black and white women.

Following an 18-month conservation and research project at the Yale Center for British Art, an enigmatic double portrait that drew a dramatic competition at auction in 2021 is going on display at its new permanent home of Compton Verney.

The latest sale at Aces Gallery in Stamford, Connecticut was topped by the multi-estimate performance of a rediscovered allegorical painting by Venetian artist Paris Bordone (c.1500-71).

The 19th edition of Master Drawings New York is expected to feature more than 20 exhibitors from New York, London, Paris, Madrid and Brussels

Four Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88) family portraits acquired under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme have gone go on public display for the first time.

With Old Master sleeper spotters trawling through online catalogues looking for works with hidden potential, it’s not unusual for the odd lot to draw an unexpected bidding at sales all over the country.

A sketch which was given by the Marquis de Lafayette to the first American president George Washington sold for $1.6m (£1.22m) at an auction in Philadelphia earlier today.

A previously unpublished oil sketch by John Constable provoked fierce bidding at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury

A portrait by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) and his workshop which has been in an American museum since the 1960s will be offered at Christie’s New York in January following an agreement between the institution and the heirs of a Jewish collector.

Following a contest involving hundreds of bidding increments, an early Netherlandish panel painting of ‘The Adoration of the Magi’ hammered for $332,000 (£256,000) at an auction in upstate New York this month.