Auctioneers

Sotheby’s chalked up a premium-inclusive total of just under €11.5m (£10.25m) when it sold the Marceau Rivière collection of African art in Paris.

ATG’s selection of hammer highlights over the past week includes a Tiffany tiger orchid brooch and a pair of Chinese huanghuali armchairs of a type often called ‘official's hat’ chairs.

A selection of appointments across the art and antiques market.

The gun believed to be the weapon used by Vincent van Gogh to shoot himself in the summer of 1890 was knocked down at an €130,000 (£116,070) at auction in Paris.

Two historic US flags, one a black regimental banner from the Civil War and the other from the D-Day invasions, were knocked down for six-figure sums last week.

A signed hardback copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, plus other associated memorabilia, will be offered at Vectis Auctions in Stockton-on-Tees.

A ‘colossal and extraordinary grotesque grinning crab’ by the Martin Brothers that sold at auction last year has been temporarily barred from export from the UK.

Sotheby’s has been sold to BidFair USA, a company owned by media and telecom entrepreneur and art collector Patrick Drahi.

Letters from Canadian poet, singer-songwriter and novelist Leonard Cohen to his muse Marianne Ihlen have sold for a total $700,800 ($876,000 including buyer’s premium).

With estimates from £300-1500, here are five previews from upcoming sales this week.

A lock of Ludwig van Beethoven’s hair that was “evidently given” by the great composer to the pianist Anton Halm in 1826 was knocked down at £28,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in London last week.