The action continues to move at a very slow pace, with couple of exceptions (prices shown are hammer) – Soulages Peinture, 21 novembre 1959 made £3.8M (est. £2-£3M) and Gursky’s Chicago Board of Trade III made £1.8 ( est. £600-£800) while … More…

Picasso’s Compotier et Tasse was seized by federal officials last week at the request of the Italian government. The owner of the work, Gabriella Amati, used schemes “to embezzle Naples’ (Italy) tax revenue.” The work, valued at $11.5 million, was offered … More…

So the competition offered their selection of works tonight and the question on my mind was … would it do better than last night’s?  Things seemed to be moving along through lot 6 works (all selling); but then Grotjahn’s Untitled … More…

Duchess Portrait Missing Since WWII Returns to Her Heirs – It is always nice to read when another ‘missing’ work of art turns up and is returned to the rightful owner’s family.  This Angelica Kauffmann went missing in Poland during WW … More…

Basquiat Sells for $29 Million, Contemporary Sales Start – here is Scott Reyburn’s take on last night’s Contemporary sale in London.  Like I said yesterday, the sale was very selective; but when the right work appeared it made a strong price … More…

Lots 54 – The End: More of the same for the remainder of the sale.  In this group the top lot was the Chillida at £3.6M (it carried one of those ‘estimate on request’ estimates) and only one of the … More…

Lots 26 – 42 saw some ups and downs. A de Kooning hit the upper end of its estimate at £2.5M, while a little Lucien Freud blew past its estimate of £120K-£180K to sell for  £420K.  on the flip side an Auerbach and … More…