Auctioneers

A market-fresh figure study by Mod Brit giant LS Lowry (1887-1976), pictured below, topped the sale at Woolley & Wallis.

Paintings by major exponents of Expressionism almost invariably occupy many of the top slots in the modern and contemporary art sales staged in late autumn across Germany and Austria.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

The potential star of the show at the sale of Selected Works held by Grisebach (25% buyer’s premium) in Berlin on November 30 lived up to its expectations.

Beloved of TV antiques programmes and of bidders knowing the lots are absolutely fresh to market, there are few phrases to stir the blood at an auction as much as ‘from the attic’.

The so-called ‘Great Bardfield Artists’, named after the Essex village where a community of painters and designers lived from the 1930s onwards, has become fertile ground for local auction house Sworders (22% buyer’s premium).

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Following the multi-million-pound sale at Sotheby’s in 2015, more items from West Horsley Place, the remarkable Grade I listed mansion in Surrey, are to be sold at auction to raise money for urgent repairs.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

Overall, a Voices of the 20th Century sale held by Bonhams New York (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) on December 6 was rather disappointing, with only 100 of 264 lots sold (and only six of the 55 Russian lots). However, among the more curious entries was the ‘Paradummy’ pictured below.

Our weekly selection from salerooms and dealerships.

The Marquis de Sade’s manuscript, '120 Days of Sodom', and André Breton’s 'Surrealist Manifestos' have been declared national treasures by the French government and were withdrawn from a planned auction.

Paris’ status as a centre of the tribal art market was underscored this season with a brace of high prices in the field of Oceanic art.

Art assembled by Peter Mangold, the late political historian, led a strong line-up of Modern British pictures at Woolley & Wallis (25% buyer’s premium) in Salisbury.