Auctions

The latest themed auction held by Christie’s was their ‘Defining British Art’ evening sale in London. View ATG’s selection of 10 highlights here.

This late medieval repoussé medal depicting ‘The Emperor Heraclius’s Return of the True Cross to Jerusalem’ proved the highlight of the Sir Timothy Clifford collection of Renaissance and Baroque medals sold by Morton & Eden in London.

A series of blue-chip consignments from different sectors of the market helped Christie’s ‘Defining British Art’ evening sale in London last night to a £99.5m total including premium. The auction offered paintings by major names including Joshua Reynolds, John Constable, Stanley Spencer, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon but it was a Henry Moore sculpture that led proceedings, selling at £22m.

Crowning the white-glove success of Japanese works from the Portier collection in Paris was the sale of this signature portrait print by Kitagawa Utamaro for €600,000 (£500,000).

Wellers Fine Art Ltd will continue to hold monthly sales of jewellery and watches in Guildford, despite the liquidation of a separate commercial operation.

Two paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) consigned to auction by the actor Johnny Depp sold for a combined £7.6m at Christie’s evening sale of post-war and Contemporary art last night.

Fears that the Brexit vote would seriously impact the art market were partially allayed last night as Sotheby’s Contemporary art sale delivered robust results.

It was definitely a case of the ‘best of British’ this weekend as Aston Martin, Jaguar and Bentley went head-to-head at Bonhams classic car auction.

How times change. The British cycling roll of honour now features such illustrious names as Bradley Wiggins, Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish, Chris Froome, Laura Trott and Victoria Pendleton.

Why pay £6000-12,000 for a roadworthy Austin 7 when for thousands of pounds more you can have one that’s a wreck?

Art and antiques dealers and auctioneers are already compiling a wish-list for the industry in the wake of last week's UK vote to leave the European Union.

Two finely carved marble figures of mourners from the tomb of Jean de France, the duc de Berry (1340-1416) brother of King Charles V of France were secured by the Louvre for €4.4m (£3.67m) at Christie’s Paris last week.

A vast collection of nearly 3500 diecast models fetched £120,000 at west country auctioneers Piers Motley. The lifetime collection of John Kinchen had been “well known in the Dinky world for decades”.

A rediscovered Augustus John (1878-1961) pencil drawing of his friend Jacob Epstein sold for £80,000 at Mellors & Kirk in Nottingham.

An 1885 Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) oil, ‘hidden in plain sight’ for decades, carries an estimate of $800,000-$1.2m at Litchfield County Auctions’ June 29-30 sale in the US.

In a difficult evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art at Christie’s, Amedeo Modigliani’s (1884-1920) portrait of Madame Hanka Zborowska was one of few highpoints.

It was a pretty short sale. Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art auction last night offered just 27 lots and took less than 90 minutes to complete.

A painting catalogued as from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens soared past a cautious four-figure estimate to take €1.56m (£1.3m) at a recent Paris auction.

Auctioneers Hansons of Etwall, Derbyshire have announced they will be offering a fine Chinese blue and white vase with a Qianlong seal mark at their sale on July 1.

A private collection of Scottish Colourist paintings assembled by a former president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh gave a major boost to Lyon & Turnbull’s latest specialist auction of Scottish Paintings & Sculpture.