UK

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 latest sales of Impressionist & Modern art in London put in a mixed performance.

A silver casserole tureen was among the highlight sales during the early hours of The Art & Antiques Fair Olympia.

A clock made for King William and Queen Mary by Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) was hammered down for £1.6m atThe Clive Collection of Exceptional Clockssale on June 19 at Bonhams.

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.

Auctioneers from across the UK attend trade association SOFAA's biennial yacht club dinner.

A group of pictures by self-taught Mendip artist John Caple is offered at Albemarle Street’s John Martin Gallery during this year’s Mayfair Art Weekend (MAW), the three-day festival event dedicated to the galleries in the heart of London.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

Urban Art is London’s largest annual open-air contemporary arts fair, pictured above. It runs every year in July showing 1000-plus pieces of work along the walls and railings on both sides of the tree-lined Josephine Avenue and neighbouring streets in Brixton.

Topping by some way an offering of 300 pieces of jewellery at Lyon & Turnbull’s (25% buyer’s premium) Edinburgh sale was a Persian gold and niello decorated Esther Scroll holder.

Locks of Beethoven’s hair are known to have been taken from the composer on his deathbed in 1827, but an earlier and substantial sample featured in a recent London sale. Sold for £28,000 at Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) against an estimate of £12,000-15,000, it is certainly a well-documented souvenir.

With an infamous lack of a ‘signature’ look, Northern Irish painter Colin Middleton (1910-83) is something of an art historical chameleon.