Variety show

Rufus Bird considers whether the market is up or down

The Yellow Boy by Joshua Reynolds saw multiple peregrinations, passing even through (Romanian) royal hands for a time, before returning to London in 1981. It now headlines a selling exhibition of magnificent 18th to 20th-century works

Uncomfortable realities and alternative realms at Venice’s contemporary dance festival

Looking back at the past few months, an antique nest of drawers made to house artists’ pigments and a group exhibition of drawings spanning 500 years stand out as some of the most intriguing offerings of the summer

So close was Jean-François Millet to the humble peasants he painted that he wore clogs and coarse clothing. He was steeped in nostalgia, yet inspired avant-garde artists from van Gogh to Salvador Dalí, finds Mary Miers

A cut-crystal bed, with associated mirrors and throne, sparkled at auction earlier this month, but no glamour could beat the prize that was the Union Flag flown by HMS Spartiate at the Battle of Trafalgar