Auctioneers

The work of designer and architect William Arthur Smith Benson (1854-1924) entered a new price arena when this silvered brass ceiling light sold for £23,000 at Mallams Oxford.

Sotheby’s will hold a sale of the Bernheimer family collection in November and Konrad Bernheimer has announced the family’s Munich art dealership will move from its traditional Old Master specialism to concentrate on Modern and Contemporary art under the direction of his daughters.

The highlight of the latest Woolley & Wallis sale of Asian art held in Salisbury was this 4in (10cm) Yongzheng (1723-35) mark and period doucai lingzhi bowl.

Sotheby’s latest set of results give the first indication of how Tad Smith will direct the company.

This interior scene by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864-1916) set an artist’s record when it was knocked down at £1.7m at Sotheby’s in London.

This print ‘Unhappy Courtship’ by Dame Paula Rego (b.1935) is estimated at £2000-3000 at a charity sale being conducted by Roseberys.

For a huge model of what was once the world’s largest ship, a whopping price is a suitable result at auction.

The latest Modern and Contemporary art auctions in New York took the market to new heights with $2.73bn (£1.84bn) changing hands over two weeks of flagship sales.

This exceptionally rare Sancai ‘phoenix-head’ ewer from the early Tang dynasty was among the highlights of the week-long Asian art series of sales held in London.

Christie’s evening sale of post-war and Contemporary art last night posted a premium-inclusive total of $658.5m (£445m) as the bumper fortnight of auctions continued in New York.

The two outstanding blue dash chargers offered at a recent sale held by Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Exeter form part of a small but distinctive group of early 18th century delft dishes boldly painted with a variety of quirky bird, animal and figure subjects.

Mark Rothko’s 'Untitled (Yellow and Blue)' led Sotheby’s sale of Contemporary art in New York last night.

A new high for any work of art sold at auction came at Christie’s New York last night as Pablo Picasso’s ‘Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)’ sold at $160m (£108.1m).

The Lockheed Lounge by Australian designer Marc Newson beat its own record as the most expensive work to sell at auction by a living designer when it fetched £2.1m at Phillips in London.

Briefly owned by Louis XVI, who intended them for the Louvre, this 13in (33.5cm) high pair of fine gilt-bronze-mounted kakiemon porcelain and Egyptian porphyry brûle parfums sold for £1.65m at Sotheby’s in London this week.

This Italian baroque bronze depicting ‘Ganymede and the Eagle’ by Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi (1656-1740) proved the highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s recent sale in Edinburgh.

A key component of this spring’s series of Islamic auctions was Bonhams’ 30-lot consignment of objects relating to Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore.

This rare Indian coin drew a four-way competition at Wilkes & Curtis’ latest auction.

This large Burmantofts faience plaque sold for £7000 at 1818 Auctions of Milnthorpe, Cumbria. The vendor, who bought it at a car boot sale for £20, was in the room to watch bidding surge way beyond a £400-600 estimate.

The writing desk and chair used by Charles Dickens as he penned a number of his later classics have been bought by a museum based at the author’s former central London home.