UK

On a sweltering night in the capital, a record was set for a single-owner sale in London as the Lewis collection raised an extraordinary £296.3m total at Sotheby’s.

As yet another British prime minister steps/is forced aside, a lot coming up at Lewes saleroom Gorringe’s on July 7 gives a reminder of an earlier momentous change in power.

New appointments at auction houses Phillips and Catherine Southon

Painted with a scene of two St Ives double-ended mackerel luggers heeling to an offshore breeze, this Alfred Wallis (1855-1942) picture has what Mimi Connell-Lay calls “an absolute dream of a provenance”.

The BBC show presented by art dealer Philip Mould and broadcaster Fiona Bruce will launch the first episode in a new series on Thursday, July 16.

Duke’s latest Fine Jewellery, Watches and Silver auction in Dorchester was topped at £170,000 by this George III hexagonal pendant centred by a carved Columbian emerald within a border of graduated cushion cut diamonds.

A newly discovered portrait by George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) is among the lots on offer at Roseberys’ sale of Old Master, British & European pictures in West Norwood on July 8.

The World Cup has tempted vendors to consign a remarkable selection of big hitters to auction reflecting stand-out moments in the history of the tournament.

With estimates from £400, here are five previews of items coming up at auction this week

One of a group of seven 16th century tapestries that hung in Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk until they were sold at auction in 1924 has returned home after the National Trust was able to purchase it from an antiques dealer following TEFAF Maastricht last year.

For those with a commercial interest in the sweeping semi-abstract paintings of Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979), June 2 must have been a pretty busy day.