Colin Gleadell reports on the discovery of a Barbara Hepworth sculpture that had no problem selling at full market price despite appearing in a regional sale and requiring the new Droite de Suite fees:
Sworders auctioneers in Essex achieved its highest price for a modern work of art last week when it sold a small alabaster carving by Barbara Hepworth for £300,000. The sculpture, Two Rotating Forms, was made in 1966, with one of the forms bearing a trademark Hepworth hole. It had been in a private collection in Suffolk since the Seventies, and came on the market as part of an estate sale with an estimate of £60,000 to £80,000. […] In addition to the £300,000, a further £6,208 must be paid to the descendants of Barbara Hepworth as part of the EU’s artist’s re-sale royalty agreement, which now applies to all sales in the UK of works by European artists who have died within the past 70 years. Hepworth died in 1975.
Elizabeth Taylor’s Augustus John Collection to Be Auctioned (Telegraph)
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