Auctions

Eric Bijzet has become the latest expert to leave Sotheby’s as he plans to set up on his own as a dealer back home in Amsterdam.

Chiswick-based High Road Auctions have closed their satellite branch in Twickenham.

Salisbury-based auctioneers Woolley & Wallis have launched a new department and welcome Ned Cowell as their head of Arms & Armour, Medals & Coins and Militaria

“When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not.” The wise, if somewhat mangled words of Yoda, are ones that the great and good of the art and antiques trade will sagely nods their heads to. Then again, a nice patina and original condition are often just what’s needed.

Auctioneers Phillips have changed their buyer’s premium with immediate effect.

Key former members of Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions have started a new auction firm.

A porcelain vase thought to be from a Chinese Imperial palace over two centuries ago sells at Bonhams for £110,500

Christie’s are to sell another major slice of deaccessioned material from the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, just under a year after they held a dedicated auction devoted to a dispersal from the Met’s holdings of English furniture and works of art.

Just under $1.2bn changed hands at the top-end of the art market in New York this week as Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips all held their Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary auctions over seven days for the first time. Here is ATG’s pick of individual highlights sold across the week.

As West Ham and Manchester United prepare to play the final match at Upton Park tonight, the East London club have announced that fans will have the chance to buy their own slice of Hammers’ history with an extensive auction of memorabilia, including fixtures and fittings from the stadium itself.

Made under the watchful eye of the third Qing emperor, a Chinese porcelain vase valued at just £12 in the 1950s sold for £750,000 at the latest sale held by Mallams in Cheltenham.

Bonhams set a record auction price for any British motorcycle with the sale of a 1938 Brough Superior 750cc BS4 for £331,900.

Christie’s have announced details of their latest ‘themed’ sale – an evening sale of British art which will take place in London on June 30.

Interesting oddities that were ironed out in subsequent editions bump up demand when it comes to book collecting. A good example of this is coming up at Wolverhampton auction house Cuttlestones on May 6.

A large Indian gouache on paper miniature was the unexpected highlight of a specialist Islamic & Indian Arts sale at Roseberys in London last week.

A selection of works by David Tindle (b.1932) will be offered at Grand Auctions in Folkestone on May 9.

A portrait by Eugène Delacroix redolent with associations to Nineteenth century French Romanticism has been secured by the Paris museum dedicated to his work.

Certain moments in films stay razor sharp in the mind long after you have seen them. Mention ‘Jack Nicholson’ and it is odds-on a mental image will spring up of that terrifying ‘Here’s Johnny’ scene from The Shining.

In the space of just 48 hours, two paintings by the self-taught Welsh artist and horticulturalist Cedric Morris (1889-1982) raised the auction bar for his work to a new level.

A watercolour by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) drew serious bidding at Sworders this week, overtaking a £40,000-60,000 estimate before it was knocked down at £85,000.