A rare Lamborghini – and other summer auction highlights

Supercars in the Swiss Alps
Bonhams, Gstaad Palace

The Gstaad Palace hotel, surrounded by tree-lined mountains and scenic slopes, welcomes the specialist motoring division from Bonhams for the first time in 14 years. Leading the sale is a rare, jet-inspired 2010 Lamborghini Reventon supercar – one of only 15 carbon-fibre and aluminium-bodied convertibles – as well as a 1991 Ferrari F40, the last model personally overseen by Enzo Ferrari himself. 

The Gstaad Sale takes place on 3 July. All lots on view at the Gstaad Palace hotel from 1 July

British women artists to the fore
Phillips, London

Young British female artists take centre stage in Phillips’s upcoming sale. Flora Yukhnovich’s loose rococo-inspired painting is one highlight; another is Caroline Walker’s moody green-tinted snapshot of a woman’s living room. Keep an eye on art market darling Yukhnovich, who recently had a solo exhibition at London’s Victoria Miro; one artwork sold for more than seven times its earlier estimate.

20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Phillips takes place on 30 June

Bacon’s study of Lucian Freud
Sotheby’s, London 

Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud enjoyed a famously fierce friendship – until it inevitably fell apart. In Sotheby’s British Art: the Jubilee Auction, Bacon’s 1964 large-scale portrait of his fellow painter – unseen in public for the last 50 years – will go on sale for an estimated excess of £35m. Painted almost 20 years before the pair’s fabled falling out, the piece captures the complex relationship between two titans of 20th-century art.

British Art: the Jubilee Auction at Sotheby’s takes place on 29 June

Time for another tea party
Sotheby’s Hong Kong

The auction features more than 20 lots of premium Puerh

Last December, Sotheby’s Hong Kong held its first ever tea auction, catering to the burgeoning market of tea collectors and drinkers. It was such a success, it now stages a second. The focus is on Puerh, the ancient tea that first found favour with the Qing Dynasty and which is often packaged in cakes or bricks. This 35-lot sale – with a combined value of HK$3.2mn (US$400,000) – includes century-old teas, plus cakes dating back to the 1930s.
Tea Treasures: Rare Vintage & Premium Puerh at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. Bidding closes 24 June

Novels marked-up by their own authors
Christie’s, London

Fancy owning an “extensively” annotated first edition of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale? Or a colourfully doodled copy of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? This event in support of English PEN brings together more than 80 first editions marked by their authors, with prices set to start from £100. Star items include “heavily annotated” copies of Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up The Bodies and The Mirror and the Light; Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children; and a copy of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, only partly annotated by John le Carré, since the great author died in 2020, just 45 pages in.

First edition of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, by John le Carré, part annotated by the author. Estimate £8,000–£12,000

First Editions, Second Thoughts: an Auction in Support of English PEN is on sale at Christie’s from 28 June to 12 July. The collection will be available for the public to view in a standalone exhibition from 9 to 12 July

A new challenger in Kensington
Sloane Street Auctions, London 

This young auction house – it opened in January – presents various masterpieces in its next sale, with a wealth of old masters’ paintings and sculptures as well as 20th-century photography by Richard Avedon, Guy Bourdin and Cecil Beaton. The selection includes a series of Sir Joshua Reynolds’s 18th-century “Grand Manner” portraits; Nick Knight’s still-life inspired garden roses, shot on iPhone; and a white terracotta vessel incised by Picasso – it’s rumoured to depict a young Jacqueline Roque, his last wife. 

The Iconic Masterpieces sale at Sloane Street Auctions takes place on 1 July

Dazzling rare gems in Switzerland
Sotheby’s Geneva

A colourful Bulgari gold necklace set with quartz, chrysoprase and carnelian; a whopping diamond rock (just over three carats and “perfect as an engagement ring”); and vibrant citrine-and-diamond earrings signed René Boivin all appear at Sotheby’s Geneva this week, offering judicious collectors a curated edit of rare and iconic jewels. 

Bulgari gem set and gold necklace. Estimate CHF7,500–CHF10,000

Diamond ring. Estimate on application

Fine Jewels at Sotheby’s, Geneva, from 23 June to 7 July

Bob Dylan on the auction block
Christie’s, London 

Marking Bob Dylan’s 60th anniversary as a recording artist, the first new studio recording of “Blowin’ In The Wind” since 1962 is a highlight of Christie’s The Exceptional Sale, which “includes an unprecedented number of rare masterpieces with important provenances”.

The 2021 recording of Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind” is presented in a custom-made walnut and white oak cabinet

Taken from a special session with multi-Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett, the analog re-recording of Dylan’s seminal protest song, made on a one-of-a-kind Ionic Original Disc, is expected to sell for up to £1m. Other items include porcelain from Napoleon’s personal table service, and the “Hellier” Stradivarius, a violin crafted by Antonio Stradivari in 1679.
The Exceptional Sale at Christie’s takes place on 7 July during Classic Week. Public pre-sale exhibition in London, 2 to 7 July