News

Sotheby’s and Christie’s have well-established specialist departments for brokering deals on sale of Nazi-looted works returned to rightful heirs. Over the last decade some major pieces of Impressionist and Modern art have come to auction as a result of restitution settlements.

Christie’s has agreed to withdraw seven pictures, including two by Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, from its July 9 and 10 sales after owners the Alfred Beit Foundation asked to postpone their sale.

“The ivory ban has been a right old dampener on the market as a whole but after taking time to consider its implications, collectors are coming back.”

Online sellers who use eBay are the focus of fresh attempts by HM Revenue & Customs to crack down on tax evasion.

A fine 1875 vintage… never opened… so what did this bottle of wine sell for?

A couple of recently restituted works of art drew prolonged bidding at Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art in London including Gustav Klimt's (1862-1918) portrait of Gertrud Loew which was the top lot of the night at £22m.

In the 1984 book ‘The Late Paintings and Drawings of John Constable’ by Graham Reynolds, a pencil drawing of the back and shoulders of the artist’s wife Mrs Maria Constable (nee Bicknell) is described as ‘whereabouts unknown’.