Pins matching tag:Auction

Gustav Klimt's final portrait, Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a Fan), sold for $108.7 million (£85.3 million) at Sotheby's in London after a ten-minute bidding war, becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction in Europe.

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund ADQ completed a deal to buy newly issued Sotheby's shares alongside fresh capital from majority owner Patrick Drahi, together about $1 billion, mostly used to cut the auction house's debt.

René Magritte's 1954 L'Empire Des Lumières, from the estate of interior designer Mica Ertegun, sold for $121.2 million at Christie's in New York, a record for the artist and for Surrealist art at auction, reportedly to billionaire Ken Griffin.

Sotheby's told clients it was scrapping the streamlined buyer's-premium and flat seller's-commission structure it had rolled out in May, reverting from 17 February 2025 to bespoke seller terms and a tiered buyer's premium of 15% to 27% of the hammer price.

Phillips' Geneva Watch Auction XXIII totalled CHF 74,846,995 across 225 lots, the highest total for any watch auction in history, led by a Patek Philippe Ref. 2523 'Polychrome Two-Crown World Time' that sold for CHF 7,961,000.

Collector-car auctions during 2026 Monterey Car Week totalled a record $755.6 million across five auction houses, according to Hagerty, led by a 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe at $42.9 million and a bespoke Ferrari Luce 'Tailor Made' that sold for $40 million.

Art Basel's fifth Paris edition, the first under new director Karim Crippa, brings 211 exhibitors from 41 countries to the Grand Palais from 23 to 25 October, after preview days on 21 and 22 October.

Phillips will hold The Geneva Watch Auction: XXIV over two sessions on 7 and 8 November 2026 at the Hotel President Wilson, offering 221 lots led by a stainless-steel Patek Philippe Ref. 1436 split-seconds chronograph from 1945 estimated at up to CHF 4,000,000.

North America's largest contemporary-art fair returns to the Miami Beach Convention Center from 4 to 6 December, with more than 280 galleries from over 40 countries, anchoring the broader Miami Art Week.