Fine Art

Fine art is a staple of the dealing and auctioneering industry, featuring works ranging from Medieval art to traditional Old Masters, and right through to cutting-edge Contemporary art.

While oil paintings represent a large part of the sector, other mediums adopted by artists across the ages include drawings, watercolours, prints and photographs.

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Affordable art: Six works sold or offered for under £1000 including a sought-after Modern British gouache

15 November 2018

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £1000 and three upcoming lots, including a gouache that set an auction record for the artist Ray Howard-Jones.

Leonardo da Vinci drawing auction

Tajan to offer Leonardo drawing after ‘national treasure’ deadline expires

14 November 2018

French auction house Tajan has announced a date next year for the sale of the Leonardo da Vinci drawing that it discovered in 2016.

Chinese Mona Lisa

Chinese ‘Mona Lisa’ owned by Body Shop founder Anita Roddick sells for £1.7m at auction – watch video

13 November 2018

Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury sold an important oil by Chinese contemporary artist Yang Fei Yun (b.1954) today for £1.7m (plus 25/12% buyer’s premium). It came for sale from the charity established by Body Shop founder Dame Anita Roddick (1942-2007).

A marquetry commode by Emile Gallé

‘Japonisme’: 7 lots from Christie’s themed sale showing Japanese influence on Western art

12 November 2018

It is 150 years since the beginning of the Meiji era in Japan and 160 since the country finally opened up to foreign trading after years of isolation.

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Explorer Hanbury-Tenison comes closer to home for his taste in art

12 November 2018

Alongside living with bushmen in Africa, visiting 33 native tribes in Brazil and riding the length of the Great Wall of China, the Cornish-based explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison (b.1936) also found time to pursue another passion – one much closer to home.

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Newlyn School art offered at auction in nearby Penzance

12 November 2018

Edwin Harris (1855-1906) is one name that did not feature in the Robin Hanbury-Tenison collection of Newlyn School art at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (see main story in this section).

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Bawden farm reaps reward at Kent auction

12 November 2018

Work by the community of mid-20th century painters in Essex known as the Great Bardfield Artists fetches strong sums on the secondary market.

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Affordable art: Six works sold or offered for under £1000

12 November 2018

Three modestly valued works in regional sales.

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Artist Alfred Priest makes a show splash

12 November 2018

A marine scene by Alfred Priest (1810-50) is among the highlights at English and Continental Antiques’ final exhibition of the year.

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5 Questions: John Stanley of Blackbrook Gallery

12 November 2018

John Stanley runs Blackbrook Gallery with his wife Pat. They will stand at Art & Antiques for Everyone in Birmingham from November 15-18.

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Leon Kossoff's view of King's Cross appears at Sydney sale

12 November 2018

A London scene by an important Modern British painter will be offered at Deutscher and Hackett in Sydney on November 28.

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ATG letter: Sticky problem of lot labels

12 November 2018

MADAM – May I make a plea, through your publication, for auction houses to be aware of the damage sticky lot labels can do to the delicate water gilding on the frames of paintings.

Edward H Niemann painting

Affordable art: Six works sold or offered for under £1000 including a Victorian landscape showing hop houses in Kent

08 November 2018

Three modestly valued works selling at regional sales below £1000 and three upcoming lots, including a oil painting of oast houses in a Kentish landscape by Edward H Niemann.

Duke and Duchess of Windsor

Duke and Duchess of Windsor snap from ‘Jumpology’ photo shoot comes to auction

06 November 2018

Photographer Phillipe Halsman loved to take photos of famous people jumping. He once said: “Starting in the early 1950s I asked every famous or important person I photographed to jump for me. I was motivated by a genuine curiosity.

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Winter Olympia to return for satisfied exhibitors

05 November 2018

The Winter Art & Antiques Fair Olympia is to return next year in its new format after dealers made significant early sales and said they were “very happy” with its latest staging,.

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Traditional art is talk of the Towne as watercolour leads 18th-19th century picture auction

05 November 2018

British watercolours and oils from the 18th and 19th centuries grabbed bidders’ attention at a recent Oxford auction, proving there is life in this traditional market given the right artists and good provenance.

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Ballet designs take the stage at Abbott and Holder

05 November 2018

Yolanda Sonnabend’s (1935-2015) costume and stage designs helped revolutionise the look of British ballet.

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Kirkton House provides 182 works in Edinburgh auction

05 November 2018

Pictures formed a prominent part of Lyon & Turnbull’s (25/20% buyer’s premium) Kirkton House sale earlier this month as the contents of the Regency manse near Montrose were dispersed from the auction house’s Edinburgh saleroom.

Bust of Peace

UK issues export bar for Antonio Canova’s Bust of Peace sculpture

02 November 2018

The UK government has issued an export bar on a previously lost Antonio Canova bust that sold at a Sotheby’s auction earlier this summer.

Assyrian relief Christie's

Assyrian relief sets second-highest price for ancient art at Christie’s New York despite Iraq’s repatriation call

01 November 2018

An Assyrian relief unearthed from the royal palace at Nimrud in modern-day Iraq has set the second highest ever price for a piece of ancient art at auction after selling at Christie’s New York.

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