Christie's

Sotheby’s and Christie’s have released figures to highlight how they have been able to manage the process of rapidly migrating their core business online during the coronavirus crisis.

Works by the French artist Jean Arp (1886-1966) form the main constituent of the 81-lot sale of the Greta Stroeh collection to be offered by Christie’s Paris rooms on Mar 26.

The overall total from the latest London series of Contemporary art auctions was down year-on-year. With one day sale still to run at the time of going to press, the running total of £197.4m from the sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips compared to £253.9m from the equivalent sales in 2019.

Star turn among some 120 lots of playing cards offered as part of a Stroud Auctions (18% buyer’s premium) sale was the last to be offered. A complete set of Charles Hodges’ Astronomical Playing Cards, it sold online for £3000.

The latest Impressionist & Modern auctions in London posted the lowest total for a February series in this category for a decade.

Two key consignments, one painting and one drawing, lifted the latest Old Master series in New York to the highest total for five years.

Willem Janszoon Blaeu is one of the more famous names in the history of map and globe making and at Christie’s (25/20/13.5/% buyer’s premium), the tiny pocket globe attributed to him shown here was sold for a treble-estimate £230,000.

Extraordinarily high prices paid for the works of the Russian writer Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev were noted in ATG No 2425, and there were many more lots of interest in the sale held by Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) in which they were offered.

March is when Paris turns its attention to the world of drawings and works on paper.

‘Masterpieces’ from the celebrated collections of Dr Martin Schøyen offered at a recent Christie’s (25/20/13.5% buyer’s premium) sale in London included some real rarities.

Hopes are high that the market for traditional British sporting paintings could experience a boost in demand after a single-owner collection racked up over £2m at auction in London.

Sotheby’s holds the first of its New York series of Old Master paintings and drawings at the end of January with its Masters Week sales running from January 24-31.