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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Selling the Wright stuff

15 August 2006

This recently discovered oil landscape by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734–97) will be offered for sale by Richard Winterton at Hilliards Cross, Lichfield on August 31.

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Found in the attic: Benjamin money

25 July 2006

Four Beatrix Potter watercolour Christmas cards, recently discovered in a Wiltshire attic, will be sold by Highworth, Swindon auctioneers Kidson-Trigg on September 20. The cards have been consigned by descendants of the original recipients, Elizabeth (1888-1977) and Elinor (1886-1979) Lupton.

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When did you last see your Dadd?

18 July 2006

Enigmatic, elusive, rarely seen, and classified as mad – but that’s our Dadd!

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More money but less drama

26 June 2006

Record turnover at London flagship sales but the buzz of the 1980s has gone

Watch out for fake McBean's, expert warns

26 June 2006

Bogus Angus McBean photographs have started to circulate this year. The fakes are clearly designed to cash in on a series of exhibitions about the famous surreal and theatrical photographer scheduled for July.

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Record for ‘notified’ Tiepolos

24 June 2006

Italy has witnessed a sudden, perhaps unexpected, surge in its auction scene with a series of record-breaking sales at Sotheby’s, the most remarkable of which has been the Milan sale of a cycle of Tiepolo canvases on May 30.

Sotheby’s buy Noortman

17 June 2006

Auction house acquire leading Old Master dealer with debts of $26m

Hong Kong moves into the Modern market...

05 June 2006

A NEW record for Ming porcelain set by a king of Las Vegas provided the headline, but the real story of Christie’s anniversary series in Hong Kong was the rise and rise of Modern and Contemporary Asian art. This relatively new visitor to the global auction market has now eclipsed more traditional collecting disciplines as Christie’s biggest earner in Hong Kong.

The man who captured Monty

05 June 2006

AN unseen and apparently unique collection of photographs, letters and maps that illuminates the campaigns of Field Marshall Montgomery in the Second World War has emerged at Kent auctioneers Watermans.

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Middle Eastern buyers purchase half of inaugural Dubai sale

31 May 2006

Over 500 clients participated in Christie’s inaugural sale in Dubai last month at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel.

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If there is a bubble, it’s not set to burst yet

15 May 2006

Hedge funds continue to stake a claim on big-ticket names

Phillips de Pury & Co to open new London rooms and target Frieze clients

08 May 2006

PHILLIPS de Pury & Company are to open a new London saleroom and hold a special Contemporary Art and Design auction on October 14 during the Frieze fair.

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$85m portrait helps Picasso eclipse Van Gogh as art’s biggest name

08 May 2006

Pablo Picasso has become the ultimate luxury brand. On May 3 at Sotheby’s New York Picasso’s rare and iconic 1941 portrait, Dora Maar au chat, became the world’s second most expensive painting when it sold for $85m (£48.3m) to a mystery buyer in the room, widely presumed to be representing a Russian oligarch.

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NPG need £116,057 by end of June, or they lose unique Donne portrait

08 May 2006

LESS than two months remains to find the final £116,057 towards the £1.4m price of a unique portrait of the 17th century poet John Donne.

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Double Dux – the gaze and the glaze

24 April 2006

MUSSOLINI’s son-in-law and foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, would have done well to heed the imagery of this black glazed terracotta head when another version of it came into his possession.

Chinese painting records keep falling

18 April 2006

The current boom in the market for Chinese Contemporary paintings could hardly be better illustrated than by the way sale statistics have been leapfrogging around the globe in the last couple of weeks.

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Ravilious high and dry at £76,000

18 April 2006

Works by Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) are only very occasionally seen on the market. So when this evocative watercolour Salt Marsh was offered at Sworders (15% buyer’s premium) sale in Stansted Mountfitchet on April 11 it attracted at least seven interested parties.

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China’s contemporary values

12 April 2006

The enormous potential of the market for contemporary Chinese art was dramatically underlined by almost frenzied scenes at Sotheby’s (20/12% buyer’s premium) eagerly awaited March 31 Contemporary Art Asia sale in New York.

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Dealer turns detective to reveal Ruskin

03 April 2006

In last week’s ATG we revealed how a sketchily catalogued box of over 130 19th century photographs estimated at £80-120 in a Cumbrian auction house proved to be a cache of images made by the early daguerreotype process and ended up selling to Ken Jacobson for £75,000.

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Early photo images captured at £75,000

27 March 2006

"Lot 132. A 19th century mahogany box containing a quantity of 19th century photographs: 15 small images of stonework on metal, 50 images of buildings on metal, 70 small images of buildings on metal and 14 of buildings on card. Box poor condition, many images poor condition."

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