Despite Maurizio Cattelan's Comedian selling for a staggering $6.2m, The Now and contemporary auctions in New York made 63% less than last year

The interior designer Mica Ertegun's Surrealist L'empire des lumières sold for a record $121.1m in New York last night, with a new high also set for Ed Ruscha

The night’s total take took a major hit when it was revealed that its second-biggest lot, a Basquiat self-portrait, had failed to sell

Kicking off November's marquee evening sales, the house brought in a total of $268.6m from 49 lots

The most valuable lot of the week is a record-breaking Magritte with a third-party guarantee, but the most talked-about is a conceptual still life by Maurizio Cattelan

After Ernst Klimt’s sudden death at 29, Gustav completed "Hans Wurst Delivering an Impromptu Performance in Rothenburg" and signed it in his brother’s name

The painting depicting the prodigal son was sold by Eduard Fuchs, a Communist writer, after his escape into exile in 1933

In a subdued market, the season’s most promising auctions are of estates

An Andalusian horse was last sold at the auction house in 2000, after which another landscape was discovered, hidden on the back

Steve Lazarides, the street artist's former driver and dealer, is putting his archive on the block in Los Angeles

Plus, some all-American nostalgia and a classic Dorothy Bohm photograph

The small 23-lot contemporary art auction last night realised a total of £37.5m

Despite some tense moments and a difficult market, the event proved solid, 'affirming' the auction house's decision to scrap June sales

New report makes grim reading in run-up to London’s autumn sales season

Our exclusive analysis of auction records in Paris until 1850 reveals around 500 sales of works by women, and striking parallels to the art trade today

All change as the final auction season of 2024 goes into full swing

The 1912 painting is believed to have been gifted by the artist to friends who later moved to the Hamptons, where a discerning dealer nabbed it decades later for a bargain

Top lots at the auction arranged by the esteemed curator before his death in August included two “date paintings” by On Kawara, a close friend

The firm's first major sale in its new Hong Kong headquarters saw spirited bidding for contemporary works and regional records for paintings by Van Gogh and Monet

The auction house will hold its first live evening sale in the new Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Henderson Building today

Bankruptcy trustees have proposed selling hundreds of works through the auction house, with hopes to recover up to $2m

Ria, Naked Portrait (2006-07) depicts an art handler who approached the artist, then in his 80s, to pose for the painting

The sale's most valuable lot, a water lily painting by Claude Monet, is expected to sell in the region of $60m

If it goes for the auction house's estimate, "L'empire des lumières" (1954), from the collection of late interior designer Mica Ertegun, would set an auction record for the Surrealist artist

Sotheby’s reported plunge in earnings is part of a bigger picture

Increasingly unsettled elites are making a struggling market even less predictable

The work will headline the inaugural sale at Christie's new Zaha Hadid-designed headquarters in the Henderson building

Patrick Drahi will remain auction house's majority shareholder in $1bn deal, as ADQ buys shares to "reduce leverage" and support "growth and innovation"

The unusual move halted a court-ordered auction of around 1,400 objects for the second time in four months

But consistent strength in its sell-through rate and Asia Pacific buyer base show the auction house's ‘resilience’ amid obstacles