Northern highlights

In January, Bonhams announced the acquisition of Bukowskis, the leading auction house in the Nordic region. Established in 1870, Bukowskis, whose flagship saleroom is in Stockholm, is a company renowned throughout Scandinavia. In 2021, it sold 11 of the 15 most-valuable works of art in the Swedish market – one of which, Sunday Morning, 1891, by Anders Zorn, achieved the highest price ever for a Swedish artwork sold at auction – and handled numerous prestigious collections.

Long loved and respected in its home region, Bukowskis has in recent years expanded to become an innovative digital presence. So, in addition to continuing to sell fine art and collectables at its salerooms in Stockholm and Helsinki, Bukowskis has now extended its reach globally to attract more than a million users every month to its app and website.

The acquisition gives Bonhams an even larger footprint in Europe – having already opened its Rue de la Paix saleroom in Paris in 2021 – at the same time as extending the company’s digital capabilities. “Bukowskis has a renowned heritage,” said Bruno Vinciguerra, CEO of Bonhams. “Our acquisition of such a celebrated auction house is an important part of our strategy to further the development of Bonhams into a digital leader and a truly global player, with a balanced presence across the United States, Europe and Asia. We are delighted to welcome Louise Arén and the entire Bukowskis team to the Bonhams family.”

Arén, Chief Executive of Bukowskis, said: “Bukowskis has become an industry leader in digital transformation. With Bonhams’ global reach, we can further build on our position as the leading auction house in the Nordic region. An exciting journey has just begun.”

Bukowskis, the renowned Scandinavian auction house

The Porsche 550 Spyder 1955 to be offered in the 3 March Amelia Island Auction

Woolf Barnato tests the first Derby Bentley. Credit: Getty Images

Originals - still the best

The name Porsche is inseparable from the idea of speed, but it was not until 1953 that the Stuttgart company launched its first genuine racing car, the 550 Spyder, at that year’s Paris Motor Show. Designed for both racetrack and road circuit, it became an instant legend for its sheer class – and for its exclusivity. Between 1953 and 1956, only 90 cars were produced, including the 1955 example that leads the Amelia Island sale in Florida in March. Appearing at an exciting time in European racing history, this 550 Spyder (chassis no.555- 0036) quickly had an impact on major racing circuits in Germany, including Hockenheim and Nürburgring. In 1961, it was taken to the United States, remaining under the same ownership for the past half-century. Impeccably documented, it is in near original condition.

Alongside the Porsche is one of the most important Bentleys in the history of the brand. The 1933 Bentley 3½-litre Sports Tourer Chassis B1AE is the pivotal link between the ‘WO’ era and the Rolls-Royce-owned Derby Bentley production. It was the feature car for many of the press articles in period, and is in remarkably original condition.

Enquiries: Rupert Banner +1 212 461 6515 rupert.banner@bonhams.com

A Gilt Copper Alloy Figure of Tara, Early Malla Period, 13th Century. Estimate $500,000- 700,000

Asia Week New York

A gilt copper-alloy figure of Tara made in Nepal around the 13th century leads a wonderful array of objects offered during Asia Week New York in March. Representing the pinnacle of the Early Malla Period, this classic figure is the best example of its type to come to the market in recent years. It makes its auction debut at the Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art sale on 22 March.

Meanwhile, the Noble Silver Collection – Treasures from the Burmese Silver Age sale, which is online only (14-24 March), offers the finest and most comprehensive collection of Burmese silver in the world. Many of the pieces are embellished with popular scenes from the Hindu Ramayana and the Buddhist Jataka tales.

The cultural milieu of late 19th-century Shanghai was tight-knit, as the overlapping narratives in three Shanghai School scroll paintings in the sale Fabian Chinese Paintings IV on 21 March reveal. Two are posthumous depictions of the wife of a major Shanghai School patron Gao Yong – one by Ren Yi, the other by the monk artist Xugu – and the third work in this fascinating trio is Ren Yi’s portrait of… his great friend Xugu.

Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fiji were an immediate hit on their release in the early 1830s and have never lost their appeal. One of the prints, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, is, of course, among the most reproduced images in the world, but it is matched in fame – almost – by another work in the series: Storm Below the Summit. This leads the Japanese and Korean Art sale on 23 March.

The Chinese medicinal mushroom lingzhi is prized for its health-giving properties, but in the long history of Chinese ceramics it rarely appears as a design. The appearance at the Chinese Ceramics, Works of Art and Panting sale on 21 March of a superb Yongzheng era (1722-1745) celadon-glazed dish with a design of lingzhi to the interior is, therefore, something of an event. The Chinese Works of Art sale also includes the Richard Milhender Collection of exceedingly rare Huali export furniture and a group of rare Tang dynasty sculptural pottery figures from the Harold and Ruth Newman Collection.

Bonhams Asia Week New York sales run from 15 to 17 March at the Madison Avenue saleroom

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Sanka Hakuu (Storm below the summit). Estimate $200,000-300,000

A Celadon-Glazed Dish, Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng. Estimate $40,000-60,000;

Ren Yi (1840-1896) and Xugu (1824- 1896), Posthumous Portrait of Gao Yong’s Wife. Estimate $120,000-180,000

Kelvin Okafor (born 1985), Kate Moss, 2022. Estimate: £10,000-15,000

Grayson Perry, Vote Labour, glazed earthenware. Estimate: £15,000-25,000

Pencilled in

When does a trend become business-as-usual? It has been notable in the art market over the past few years – particularly, perhaps, during the last 12 months, with the explosion of NFTs – that the dividing line between the primary and secondary markets has started to blur. Artists are increasingly creating works not for traditional galleries but to be offered direct at auction.

One example is a work specifically executed for the British. Cool. sale in London this March by the hyperrealist artist Kelvin Okafor. His pencil portraits are so perfect that they are at first glance indistinguishable from black-and-white photographs – but they are not quite the same. His approach has been described as “emotional realism” – acknowledging the personal response to his subjects that the artist captures in his drawings. Okafor has built a huge following for his work, which often features well-known figures – the British. Cool. portrait is of supermodel Kate Moss – and in 2017 he became the first black artist to be on permanent display in the House of Commons, with his pencil portrait of Bernie Grant, who was MP for Tottenham until his death in 2000.

Enquiries: Janet Hardie +44 (0) 20 7393 3949 janet.hardie@bonhams.com

Love tokens

When most people think of Picasso they think of his paintings, but after a particularly fruitful visit to Vallauris in the South of France, the artist developed a new obsession – works in gold. It was in Vallauris that Picasso met the goldsmith François Hugo, who helped Picasso create plates and medallions of Picasso’s designs in the precious metal.

On seeing the first creation in gold, Picasso reportedly bit it, proclaiming when questioned by Hugo, “I have never tasted gold before! It has a taste!” A collection of 15 gold Picasso medallions to be offered as a single lot (estimate $200,000 - 300,000) will feature in Bonhams’ sale of The Collection of Gail Feingarten Oppenheimer on 9 March in Los Angeles. As well as featuring whimsical images and signature motifs, the medallions depict the women who were central in Picasso’s life – his love for them becoming a literal love token. His icons in gold.

Sale: The Collection of Gail Feingarten Oppenheimer Los Angeles Tuesday 9 March at 1pm

Enquiries: Kathy Wong +1 323 436 5415 kathy.wong@bonhams.com

One of 15 gold Picasso medallions to be offered as a single lot. Estimate: $200,000-300,000

The market goes stateside

It might only be new, but it is already significant – The Market by Bonhams became the fastest growing online car and motorcycle sale in Europe in 2021, having achieved an average sell-through rate of 90% and set a world record by selling an extremely rare metallic blue 1989 Ferrari F40 for £1,000,500. The price was the first seven-figure result for an online motoring platform, not just in the UK but right across Europe.

Building on this success, The Market at Bonhams has now launched in the United States, offering the same combination of no buyers’ fees and a flat 5% seller’s commission that has made it such a success elsewhere. Clients can now buy and sell collectors’ cars 24/7, fulfilling the Bonhams pledge to be ‘always on’. From live auctions to online timed auctions and daily online sales via The Market by Bonhams, the motoring department can now offer cars at all prices to collectors wherever they are in the world.

Enquiries: Caroline Cassini caroline.cassini@bonhams.com

Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), Patio de la Casa Sorolla, Elena Sorolla en el jardín. Estimate: £80,000-120,000)

Family, trees

The Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla was never happier than when painting outdoors, capturing the effects of sunlight. Many of his most memorable works were executed in the open air – even the formal portraits, which he found artistically constricting but financially liberating. In 1911, when he moved into a new house in the Madrid suburb of Chamberí – now the Sorolla Museum – the artist personally designed its garden, creating an oasis of calm in the bustling city and, importantly, the perfect setting for his work. A devoted family man, he also found constant inspiration in his wife and children; when his twin passions of garden and family came together, the results could be remarkable.

The charming sun-dappled painting Patio de la Casa Sorolla, Elena Sorolla en el jardín (estimate £80,000-120,000) of his younger daughter Elena in the garden of the family home, offered in the 19th-century British and European Art sale in London in March, is a case in point. The picture was in the artist’s studio at his death in 1923, three years after a severe stroke ended his career, and it went on to star in the 1958 Madrid exhibition that celebrated Sorolla’s garden paintings.

Enquiries: Charles O’Brien +44 (0) 20 7468 8360 charles.obrien@bonhams.com

Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), Patio de la Casa Sorolla, Elena Sorolla en el jardín. Estimate: £80,000-120,000)

What happened next...

On cloud nine: René Magritte’s Torse nu dans les nuages sold for $9,978,313 at the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale in New York in December.

Striking gold: Golden Sunset over Halong Bay by Pham Hua sold for HK$9,732,500 – a world auction record for the artist – at the Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art Sale in Hong Kong in November.

Nuts about Lawrence: Portrait of Jane Allnutt by Sir Thomas Lawrence sold for £187,750 at the Old Master Paintings sale in London in December