Christie's

Published in Venice in November 1494, a copy of Luca Pacioli’s 'Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proporzioni et proporzionalità…' offered in a recent US sale was granted the rare privilege in the book auction world of having a catalogue all of its own.

Beyond the Horizon was the title given to the remarkable Mopelia collection of atlases and travel books offered in a June 5 sale in London.

The latest sales of Impressionist & Modern art in London put in a mixed performance.

Asian auction series now take place around the world throughout the year in the major centres of the art market. Paris held its latest staging this month at the beginning of the French capital’s Temps Fort or high season.

The success of timed online auctions for London’s big auction houses is putting the format on the map for other salerooms too.

The latest week of Russian art auctions in London generated £35.8m including premium, the highest total for a June series in this category since 2014.

A book billed as the work that marked the birth of modern business will be the subject of a single-lot auction at Christie’s New York on June 12.

Spring is a traditional point in the saleroom calendar for New York to mount its tribal art auctions.

A Qianlong (1736-95) three-colour lacquer throne provided the London series of Asian art sales with its headline moment.

Some eye-catching individual prices punctuated the latest Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art sales in New York, helping to lift the year-on-year total .

Collections from two former British prime ministers – Sir Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher – sold out at auction in the same week.

For antiquities aficionados, the pinnacle of Christie’s ‘Classic Week’ in New York was its single-owner offering of 40 exquisitely carved intaglios and cameos hailing from the ancient world.

This over life-sized marble bust depicts Emperor Didius Julianus, who ruled the Roman empire for just a few short months in the year 193AD. His fleeting 66-day reign took place during the tumultuous period known as ‘The Year of the Five Emperors’ and came to a grisly end when he was murdered by a common soldier.