Auctions

Sotheby’s has bought scientific research specialist Orion Analytical to "help to make the art market a safer place".

Some good old-fashioned saleroom drama ensued at Ewbank’s of Send in Surrey on December 1 when a tribal art necklace estimated at £60-100 sold to a buyer from Continental Europe at £99,000 (plus 22.5% premium).

Arts & Crafts furniture from the collection of a former boss of brewing giant Mitchell & Butler will be offered at The Cotswold Auction Company this month.

Theodore Johns aims to introduce younger collectors and Caravaggio enthusiasts to a group of more affordable works with an exhibition of paintings inspired by the Old Master.

An archive of family drawings by Sir William Rothenstein (1872-1945) forms part of Mallams’ December 8 sale in Oxford.

Rarely seen photographs of the wedding that caused a constitutional crisis and rocked the British monarchy have been sold at £9200.

One of the most famous firearms in French literary history has sold for €360,000 (£305,605) at Christie’s in Paris.

A pink silk jacket once worn by Queen Victoria was among the lots that led Ewbank’s recent textile auction to almost double its pre-sale expectations.

This French porcelain hot water jug, or ‘pot à eau’ was made at the Vincennes factory in 1754, probably for the Dauphine Maria Josepha. The mother of King Louis XVI, who was guillotined during the French Revolution, she was an important patron of Vincennes.

It might not be a Bag for Life but this plastic bag has set a collector back £240.

A rare and recently rediscovered Irish Commonwealth/Charles II silver porringer sold today for £25,000 – five times its estimate – at Sworders’ auction in Essex.

A musical manuscript at the centre of a row over whether it was handwritten by Ludwig van Beethoven or a copyist has failed to sell at an auction at Sotheby’s.

A small and previously unrecorded portrait of Lord Nelson sold for £14,000 at Charles Miller’s latest Maritime and Scientific sale in West Kensington.

A still life by Marc Chagall led Dorotheum in a record-breaking auction last week when the painting achieved a premium inclusive €1.02m (£872,269).

An auction of the designer wardrobe of a socialite at Peter Wilson’s Nantwich saleroom attracted more than 100 people and raised £27,000.

Like the Statue of Liberty or Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower is symbolic of the skyline of one of the world’s great cities. The ultimate Parisian souvenir, sold in model form to tourists round the world, what would you give to have a piece of the real thing to take home?

Christie’s auctions of Modern British & Irish art this week helped lift their annual total in this category to £68m, the highest figure the firm has ever posted.

A handwritten poem by Anne Frank has sold at auction in the Netherlands at €140,000 (£119,000).

East Bristol Auctions is holding a Lego sale next month. With more than 300 lots, the firm claims the auction will be the world’s first dedicated Lego toy sale.