James Knight has had a super-charged career. But, as Andrew English discovers, the journey has been more by accident than by design
Just when you think that James Knight, Bonhams Group Director of Motoring, is going to be a bit of a tough egg, he disarms you by telling the story of his most memorable sale. It turns out this ...
That most precious of stones, the blue diamond, has always exerted a dangerous fascination. As Bonhams offers a dazzling Bulgari ring, Katherine Prior looks at why these gems generate such excitement
There is something about blue diamonds. Whether old or new, whenever they come up for sale, it is an event – and the sale records tumble. In 1984, the Tereschenko ...
For the past 40 years, Colin and Elizabeth Laverty led the way in acquiring contemporary Australian art. To mark the auction of part of their collection in March, John McDonald visited the Lavertys shortly before Colin's death last month
William Robinson was a late starter. He didn't begin to exhibit until well into his fifties. Although the quality ...
In a lightbulb moment, various 60s artists stimultaneously turned to comic-strip imagery for inspiration – but only one is still alive. Adrian Dannatt assesses Mel Ramos, the Grand Old Man of Pop Art
BLAM! BIFF! WHAMM and why not WHOOSH to boot – the classic American comic strips were as loathsome to the cultural elite of the era as they proved exhilarating ...
In his early years, drawing rather than painting was Lucian Freud's preferred medium. Richard Calvocoressi looks at an exquisite work from 1944
Lucian Freud was the greatest painter of the human frame in the latter part of the 20th century. A grandson of Sigmund Freud, he came to England with his family from Berlin in 1933, at the age ...
There is an enduring fascination with the creative process – no more so than with original manuscripts. Here, four distinguished critics reflect on some of the works in the Roy Davids Sale, and what rewrites may reveal
I've been wandering in the greenwoods
And mid flowery smiling plains
I've been listening to the dark ...
It might horrify art critics, but Vladimir Tretchikoff's Chinese Girl is one of the world's most reproduced works. Now the original painting will be offered at Bonhams. Designer Wayne Hemingway admires its appeal
Growing up in Morecambe with a Nan who loved to fill the house with 'exotica' and mass-market artworks, I never paid much notice to the ...
Robert Devereux fell in love with Africa – and then with its art. He talks to Mark Palmer about how his life has been changed by the continent's artists.
Portrait by Richard Cannon
Robert Devereux is not the first European to develop an abiding passion for Africa – but he is in a league of his own when it comes to ...
It all started when Christian Levett put a mark beside 'antiquities' in the catalogue list. Now he has one of the world's best private collections of classical art – and he had to build a museum to store it. Lucinda Bredin meets him to discuss his compulsive collecting
In the crypt of Mougins Museum of Classical Art, there is an ...
The photographs of Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden are now instantly recognisable – but her images only came to light by accident, as Mark Haworth-Booth remembers
I first became aware of the compelling name of Clementina, Viscountess Hawarden – to give it in full – in 1972. That was the year of a landmark exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum titled From Today Painting is ...
Once considered a health-giving elixir, Port's popularity in Britain has been on the wane. But, as Bruce Palling is delighted to report, it is being savoured once more
Does Port have an image problem? Well, the evidence is quite contradictory. Many people consider that Port drinking belongs to the vanishing era of gentlemen's clubs and over-indulgent dinners rather ...
Kyoto has ancient temples and cutting-edge architecture. Matthew Wilcox bows to the Venice of the east
When Akira Kurosawa's film Rashomon premiered in 1950, the studio chief stood up halfway through and walked out in disgust. Not only was the film totally incomprehensible, but to add insult to injury, it seemed to contain only a single set: Kurosawa had ...
Akram Khan, who choreographed the Olympics Opening Ceremony, dips into Tate Modern's Turbine Hall and Tanks
If I have any time off, I go to Tate Modern with my wife. I love the Turbine Hall and in July I discovered the Tate Tanks. BBC News asked me to review Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's performance there of a very ...