Online auctions

Online sales of art, antiques and collectables reached $4.82bn in 2019, a rise of 4% from the previous year and digital demand is set to increase further in the years ahead.

Sotheby’s is staging two online auctions of works consigned directly from 39 different Old Master dealers.

A Roman bronze from the 1st century AD drew fervent competition and led Sotheby’s sale of works from the collection of London dealer Daniel Katz.

Buckinghamshire’s Dickins Auctioneers has rebranded to Claydon Auctioneers.

Lyon & Turnbull held a remarkably successful sale of Decorative Arts on April 1 – the firm’s first using the ‘live online’ format.

Auction house Fellows of Birmingham has started holding live online sales of jewellery and watches ‘from home’. Managing director and auctioneer Stephen Whittaker conducted the latest sale in his own front room in rural Shropshire.

The Edinburgh and London auction house Lyon & Turnbull is to press ahead with its two April sales as ‘live online only’ events. The firm’s sales of Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 (April 1) and Contemporary & Post-War Art (April 16) will feature auctioneer Gavin Strang on the rostrum in Edinburgh but no one else in the room.

London art dealer Rafael Valls has consigned a group of works to Sotheby’s which will be offered in an online sale next month.

Old Master picture dealer Fabrizio Moretti and his namesake Fabrizio (Fab) Moretti from the band The Strokes have teamed up to hold an Old Master pictures and sculptures auction at Sotheby’s in New York in December.

A letter written by the late Stephen Hawking (1942-2018) to an old school friend is being offered at a Christie’s online sale.

In a move to increase its digital presence and reach new bidders, Bonhams has agreed a long-term partnership with online auction marketplace thesaleroom.com.

Two men from south London have been sentenced for selling antique ivory fans on eBay to buyers in China and the US. The items were illegally exported without the required export permits.

Letters from Canadian poet, singer-songwriter and novelist Leonard Cohen to his muse Marianne Ihlen have sold for a total $700,800 ($876,000 including buyer’s premium).

The sale of sporting memorabilia seized from bankrupt tennis star Boris Becker will be going ahead this summer, the auctioneers handling the consignment have confirmed to ATG.

A chance to own one of the first Apple computers ever made is on offer at Christie’s online-only auction ending on Thursday.