Latest News Articles by Alex Capon
Top stories this week – including news of a rare watercolour of Venice discovered in a charity shop
10 August 2019The most popular stories on this website over the last week included news of a rare watercolour of Venice brought into a charity shop selling for £2400 at a Somerset auction.
Gold hits all-time high in UK
05 August 2019Against the backdrop of a weakening pound, the price of gold in the UK has hit an all-time high.
Portrait of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge raises £51,000 at Gloucestershire auction
05 August 2019It was a case of sitter rather than artist determining the value of an otherwise unassuming portrait that came up at Wotton Auction Rooms’ latest sale.
Son of a slave paints saintly image
05 August 2019While the vast majority of works at Old Master sales are by European artists, an unusual offering at Bonhams’ sale on July 3 was a Latin American work by a painter with Afro-Caribbean ancestry.
Teniers ham dinner brings home the bacon
05 August 2019Christie’s highest price for an Old Master this summer came in the stand-alone Masterpieces from a Rothschild Collection sale on July 4.
Supply gain as London's Old Master series goes on the rise
05 August 2019It may be a well-rehearsed refrain, but the Old Master market is much more subject to vagaries of supply than demand. Almost without fail, when high-quality fresh material is offered, bidders will come. Just getting it in the first place is the hard part.
Scrap gold rises close to all-time high in UK
01 August 2019Helped by the weakening pound, the price of gold in the UK has hit a seven-year high.
Rare watercolour of Venice brought into charity shop sells for £2400 at Somerset auction
01 August 2019One consequence of the growing prevalence of charity shops on the high street is that auctioneers are receiving more and more items that these organisations want to check in case they are valuable.
Top stories this week – including news of a rediscovered Marlborough gem selling at auction
26 July 2019The most popular stories on this website over the last week included news of an intaglio ring identified as one of the long-lost Marlborough gems selling at auction.
Turner’s Walton Bridges heads to Norwich Castle after being saved for the nation
19 July 2019JMW Turner’s oil painting ‘Walton Bridges’ which sold at Sotheby’s in July last year has been bought for the nation after funding was secured by Norfolk Museums Service.
Museum appeals for final £10,000 to secure Jane Austen handwritten letter
19 July 2019Jane Austen's House Museum in Hampshire has launched an appeal to raise the remaining funds needed to buy a fragment of a letter written by the great novelist in 1814.
Long-lost Marlborough gem bid to £62,000
18 July 2019A sapphire intaglio ring that was identified as one of the long-lost Marlborough gems shortly before it was due to be auctioned was bid to £62,000 at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury today.
Egypt threat of legal action adds to ‘politicisation’ of antiquities
15 July 2019The Antiquities Dealers’ Association (ADA) has said dealers and auctioneers should stand up to “the politicisation of the antiquities trade” in the wake of a row surrounding the sale of a £4m sculpture.
Top stories this week – including news of a ‘Botticelli’ selling for over 900-times estimate
12 July 2019The most popular stories on this website over the last week included news of a panel painting catalogued as ‘in the style of Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510)’ bringing an intense 10-minute bidding battle.
Replica US Open trophy leads auction of items seized from tennis star Boris Becker
11 July 2019The auction of sporting memorabilia seized from Boris Becker has finally taken place with some extraordinary prices bid for a series of trophies won by the bankrupt tennis star.
Christie’s counters Egypt’s threat to sue over £4m sale of Tutankhamun head
09 July 2019Christie’s has reiterated that it “carried out extensive due diligence” into a head of Tutankhamun after the Egyptian National Committee for Antiquities Repatriation (NCAR) said that it will instruct a UK law firm to file a lawsuit over its £4m sale.
Sold for 914 times top estimate: £5m ‘Botticelli’ stuns saleroom
08 July 2019Spectators at an auction in Zürich were left flabbergasted when a Quattrocento panel painting with a SFr5000-7000 estimate catalogued as ‘in the style of Sandro Botticelli (c.1445-1510)’ was knocked down at SFr6.4m (£5.16m) after an intense 10-minute bidding battle.
Masterpieces to a Rothschild’s taste tempt buyers during a packed London sales week
08 July 2019The 52-lot auction of furniture, paintings and works of art collected by members of the Rothschild family was among the most animated during a packed week of London showpiece sales.
Top stories this week – including news of auction house Wright Marshall looking for a buyer
05 July 2019The most popular stories on this website over the last week included news of a buyer being sought for auction house Wright Marshall after its parent company went into administration.
Going, going, private… Sotheby’s could compete on level terms with Christie’s – once it quits stock exchange
24 June 2019Art 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.