Auctions

Update (July 2019): auctions resumed at Bloomsbury in 2018 following Gurr Johns' purchase of Dreweatts and Bloomsbury in 2017. In February 2019 it expanded the number of sales at its London office at 16-17 Pall Mall. The original story is below.

A painting by El Greco (1541-1614) led Christie’s latest Old Master evening sale in London when it was knocked down at £5.4m.

Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, comedian Stephen Fry and singer Dame Vera Lynn have all donated ties and scarves to jewellery specialist Geoffrey Munn to raise money for Samaritans.

Birmingham jewellery specialist Fellows set a house record today selling an exceptional diamond ring by Graff for £1.1m (plus buyer’s premium).

An atmospheric oil painting by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-97) led Sotheby’s latest Old Master evening sale in London.

The Louvre Abu Dhabi has announced on Twitter that Leonardo's Salvator Mundi is heading to the newly opened museum in the Middle East.

The Victoria Cross is the highest British military honour, but in the animal kingdom the equivalent is the Dickin Medal. The award earned by a pigeon called Princess is coming up at auction at Holloway’s of Banbury on December 12.

Sotheby’s has appointed Sarah de Clercq as managing director in The Netherlands. She was previously head of Old Master and 19th Century European art at Christie’s in Amsterdam and will start her new role in January 2018.

Next month in the UK you can watch Darkest Hour, the new film depicting the Churchills in the early days of the Second World War as he became prime minister. But if you are truly fascinated by the man regularly voted as the Greatest Briton, you can get a fix tomorrow by bidding for his spectacles.

Forum Auctions has temporarily exported a collection of Banksy artworks to the US from the UK for an exhibition ahead of its debut Stateside sale next week.

The festive season is upon us and many will be sampling their favourite tipples. Auction houses typically take advantage of this time of year to offer special sales of wines and spirits; and Duke’s in Dorchester is doing just that later this week.

Rare sets of geographical, astronomical and scientific themed playing cards featured in two recent sales. Those seen in a recent sale at Chorleys in Gloucestershire came from the estate of the late Alan and Joan Tucker, booksellers of Stroud, as did some 20,000 postcards and most of the books offered in the auction.

The owner of Jarrow Auction Rooms in Tyne and Wear is hoping to raise money to rebuild his business after it was destroyed by a fire last month.