International

Art market insiders are expecting a dramatic change in the dynamic at the top end of the sector if a remarkable $3.7bn bid to buy Sotheby’s completes this year.

The offer price from Patrick Drahi represents a premium of 61% to Sotheby’s closing price on June 14 and a 56.3% premium to the company’s 30-day average share price.

The 55-year-old media and telecoms entrepreneur and enthusiastic art collector Patrick Drahi has made an offer to buy Sotheby's via his BidFair USA company in a $3.7bn deal.

Stamp and coin dealership Stanley Gibbons Group is due to receive £850,000 to resolve “all outstanding claims involving certain former directors of Mallett”, it announced on June 14.

The first American flag believed to have been planted on Omaha Beach in northern France on D-Day proved to be the top lot in Heritage’s (25% buyer’s premium) Arms & Armor, Civil War & Militaria Auction on June 9.

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.

Uncut and partially unopened, a truly exceptional presentation copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species… sold for a record $400,000 (£316,353) in a recent US sale.

Irish art market makes a sedate journey back to strength as local buyers dominate.

On July 3-4 French auction firm Rossini will be holding a sale entirely dedicated to fans when it offers the collection of Michel Maignan.

A pre-press version of a key map of colonial America emerged for sale at Swann Auction Galleries in New York on June 6. Carrying an estimate of $30,000-50,000, it sold at $100,000/£76,900 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) – a sum that reflected its extraordinary provenance.

A Chinese parcel gilt bronze censer, that was being used to hold tennis balls when first seen by valuers last year, has sold at auction in Switzerland for close to £3.3m.