Art Market

Does today’s gallery system work for artists?

Representation by a leading gallery can make an artist’s career. But do commercial galleries hold too much sway over contemporary art and artists?

27 Jun 2016
20-9-1988

Toned down and grown up: highlights from this year’s Masterpiece London

In six years, the fair has shaken off its early reputation for extravagance, but the works on show are as eclectic and enjoyable as ever

21 Jun 2016

Art Basel takes a historical turn

Why artists’ estates were the talk of the fair. Plus collector selfies, the cheapest piece at Basel and medieval books in a contemporary world

18 Jun 2016

Art Basel strives to look beyond the exclusive world of the fair

This year’s edition has a notably political edge, while the Art Basel organisation is working on wider cultural partnerships

17 Jun 2016

Inspirational drawings from Delacroix to Auerbach go on display in London

Admiring a drawing is ‘like looking over the artist’s shoulder’, says Stephen Ongpin

15 Jun 2016
T 1949-4,1949

The fall and rise of the second school of Paris

This loose group of European artists lost out to the American Abstract Expressionists in the 1960s. But are we seeing a revival of interest?

Marching Figure (1985), Bruce Nauman.

Sonic spheres and ‘phallic variations’ at Art Basel

Who said art fairs prefer ‘safer’ pieces? What to expect from Art Basel…

6 Jun 2016

International auction houses keep faith in Hong Kong

Anna Brady on Hong Kong sales, plus a round-up of the top art market headlines

4 Jun 2016
A Still Life of a laid Table, with Plates of Meat and Fish... (c. 1615), Jacob van Hulsdonck. Johnny Van Haeften at London Art Week

What not to miss during London’s summer art season

Masterpiece London, Art Antiques London, London Art Week, and the Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia all return to the capital this year

3 Jun 2016
Lot and his Daughters (1613–14), Peter Paul Rubens

The leading Lot at Christie’s this summer

Rubens’s epic painting of Lot and his Daughters treats a morally ambiguous subject with great artistic subtlety. It’s bound to do well at auction

2 Jun 2016
Golden Hours

‘This is the moment international attitudes to British art should change’

Christie’s celebrates the great tradition of British painting this month

2 Jun 2016

Would Brexit destabilise the art market?

Would a ‘leave’ vote spell disaster for the UK’s thriving art trade, or open up new opportunities to it? Two experts debate the question

31 May 2016

Will Picasso’s Cubist portrait live up to the auction-house hype?

The estimate is far short of the $100m+ prices notched up in recent years – but then this is a Picasso more cerebral than sexy

18 May 2016
Piper's new contemporary art space, in the basement of an established Mayfair antiques dealership, epitomises how the city's art world is changing

Megan Piper and the young gallerists making their mark on London

The contemporary art gallerist’s alliance with an antiques dealer epitomises the changing art world

10 May 2016
Le Baiser (c. 1957), René Magritte.

The final Spring Masters New York offers a glimpse of things to come

In 2017 Spring Masters will be reincarnated as one of two hotly anticipated TEFAF New York fairs. It’s hard not to see this year’s event as a soft launch

3 May 2016
Le Bassin aux nymphéas

Mitchell, Monet and the Master of Kasadi come to auction

Bacon, Warhol, Rothko…All the usual big-hitters appear in this month’s blue-chip sales. For the sake of variety, here are a few other highlights

1 May 2016
The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity

The growing craze for American folk art

Collectors love it for its graphic power – and Europe’s growing interest in outsider art could widen the market

Painting steals the show at Art Cologne

Contemporary painting in Germany is flourishing, if the highlights of Cologne’s art fair are anything to go by

14 Apr 2016
Autoportrait, place Vendôme resized (detail; 1932), Bernard Boutet. Courtesy Sotheby's

Sotheby’s sells ‘the handsomest man in Europe’

The elegant Bernard Boutet, medieval chess pieces and a vibrant, miniaturist Madonna feature in our preview of April’s art market

3 Apr 2016
Tableau Rastadada (1920), Francis Picabia. © ADAGP, Paris and DACS London 2016

What is Dada? (And how much is it worth?)

Dada ‘anti-art’ works are deliberately contradictory. They’re also notoriously unpredictable when they come to market

Winners and losers in the giddy melee of Art Basel Hong Kong

Key talking points and selfie-stops from this year’s fair, which was as much of a cultural melting pot as ever

30 Mar 2016

For devotees of drawings: highlights of Salon du Dessin

Salon du Dessin attracts the world’s most committed drawings collectors. What should they look out for this year?

21 Mar 2016

Pick of the fair: Xaver Scheidwimmer

Shells, lizards, flowers and Chinese porcelain all feature in this elaborate still life by Balthasar van der Ast

20 Mar 2016

Pick of the fair: Kunstkammer Georg Laue

This virtuoso carving of Adam and Eve was made by the ‘German Giambologna’, Leonhard Kern

20 Mar 2016