Christie’s first mainland China auction raised $25m (€18.5m), with sales led by a Picasso, Patek Philippe watches and bottles of Chateau Lafite.

A blockbuster auction of Contemporary art in New York — including a record $58.4m (€45.1m) for a Jackson Pollock drip painting — fetched nearly half a billion dollars — the biggest haul ever at an art auction.

Paintings by Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter and Jean-Michel Basquiat racked up over £74m (€85m) in the year’s first major test of demand for contemporary art.

A Francis Bacon triptych self-portrait is estimated to sell for up to $24m (€18.4m) at a sale in London next month.

WORKS by Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), top selling artist at auction in the world last year, will come under the hammer at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in Oct 5-9.

A part of the Atlas collection by the German artist Gerhard Richter, one of Sharon McCarthy’s favourite artists.

A “sexually charged” nude portrait by Francis Bacon has sold for £21m (€25m).

ONCE upon a time, they say, the citizens of Cologne did not have to work.