Doyle New York

US: OVERLOOKED in our recent report on the New York Old Master sales, this Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) oil sketch for a much-admired, but now lost painting of The Visitation is worth putting on the record after it fetched an upper estimate $280,000 (£197,185) at the New York rooms of Doyle’s (15/10 per cent buyer’s premium) on January 24.

“Is the live auction dead?” was the challenging question before a panel discussion at the annual conference of the Appraisers Association of America in New York in which four major regional auction houses took part.

US: A DEFINITIVE piece of social history, designed at the peak of the ’60s, the Rudi Gernreich topless bathing suit was considered the ultimate symbol of permissiveness and provoked a rash of moral outrage.