Features

James Perkins, the co-founder of rave music promoter Fantazia, kept an eclectic collection of Contemporary art at Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire.

Just before England entered a third lockdown, the John Martin Gallery squeezed in a solo show of artist Andrew Gifford’s (b.1970) work at new art hub Cromwell Place in London.

Property from the collection of Mrs Henry Ford II is being offered by more than one auction house this year. Christie’s has sales in New York on March 30 and London on April 15, and Doyle (26/21/15% buyer’s premium) held a single-owner selection in its New York rooms on January 25.

The largest contingent of works by British abstract painter John Blackburn (b.1932) ever to come to auction will be offered at Cheffins of Cambridge on February 25.

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

The American artist Donald Judd (1928-94) abandoned painting in the 1960s and devoted himself to producing three-dimensional objects.

A large group of works from the collection of Allen and Beryl Freer has been consigned to Chiswick Auctions.

It is well known that the death of an artist often leads to an upsurge of market interest and that has certainly happened with the Bulgarian Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, who died last year.

Keys’ forthcoming Modern Art and 20th Century Design Sale on February 24 includes a painting by Iraqi artist Faraj Abou (1921-84).

Four online Post-War & Contemporary art exhibitions organised by dealers.

Among the surprises at a Contemporary art sale at Ketterer (25% buyer’s premium) in Munich was the result for a work by the painter-poet Henri Michaux.

A drawing by Alexander Archipenko (1887-1964) will be among the lots on offer at Sworders’ sale of Modern British & 20th Century art on April 20.

Frieze is opening No 9 Cork Street, an initiative housed in two converted townhouses that will accommodate visiting galleries throughout the year with a focus on Modern and Contemporary art.

In the absence of face-to-face contact, 2020 was a difficult year for the numismatics market as a whole... but the auction business found a way to thrive.

Showing that not all the best UK numismatic action takes place in London, the first known gold coin of Caratacus – unearthed by a metal detectorist a year earlier in a Berkshire field – sold at auction for a record £71,000 an auction in Norwich.

Among the highlights of the year at Spink was a group of 17 medals awarded to Air Vice-Marshal Sir Matthew Brown ‘Bunty’ Frew (1895-1974).

The Medals, Orders and Decorations sale at Morton & Eden in November featured two Victoria Crosses awarded during the Indian Mutiny. They sold to the same buyer for a combined hammer price of £300,000.

After striking a few coins in both gold and silver which were still closely related to Byzantine and Sasanian prototypes, ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan ibn al-Hakam, the fifth Umayyad caliph, ruling from 685-705AD (65-86H), made a clean break with the pre-Islamic past and introduced a completely new gold coinage in 77H.

This coin, from the period known as ‘The Anarchy’, was discovered by a metal detectorist in a Yorkshire field in March.

Roma Numismatics set a new record for a classical coin when a Brutus Eid Mar-type gold aureus, struck shortly after the murder of Julius Caesar, took £2.7m in October.