Previously unknown manuscript of Marco Polo’s account. Estimate: £200,000-300,000. Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Sotheby’s London announced that it will offer in its sale of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures on Wednesday, 3 December, 2008, a previously unknown manuscript of Marco Polo’s account. Marco Polo, the most famous and popular of all mediaeval western travellers to the East, [...]

Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Composition from 1916 sold for $60,002,500, not only a record for the artist, but a record for any Russian work of art ever sold at auction. Regarded as an icon of Russian art and a paradigmatic example of the 20th century avant-garde, the masterwork was executed in 1916, the same year that [...]

“Dancer in Repose’’ (1879) by Edgar Degas
Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis bought this painting at Sotheby’s in London in 1999 for $27.9 million. This year they were given a guaranteed price that experts say is over $40 million by Sotheby’s.

One of the most important works by artist Pablo Picasso is to be sold at auction in New York.
Picasso’s Arlequin was last seen in public 45 years ago and is expected to fetch over $30m (£16.3m) when it goes under the hammer in November. The Cubist painting was owned by Surrealist artist Enrico Donati, who [...]

Sotheby’s November 3, 2008 evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York will feature an exceptionally rare masterpiece by Edvard Munch — Vampire, from 1894. This emotionally charged image numbers among the most iconic compositions in art history. A spectacular representation of love, sex and death, Vampire created a sensation when it was [...]

Visitors encounter “The Golden Calf” by Damien Hirst, which at $18.6 million was the top seller of Sotheby’s two-day sale.
It was as if Sotheby’s here was a little oasis far removed from the grim news of the financial world. In less than 24 hours, giant tanks of dead sharks, zebras and piglets submerged in formaldehyde; [...]

Including a whole new body of work that covers the complete range of Hirst’s output and more, the auction will run over two days, commencing with an Evening Sale on Monday, 15 September, and continuing throughout the following day (Tuesday, 16 September) with a morning and afternoon session. The two day sale, which will include [...]