Auction

Will the stars turn out for a sale of Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka's work in New York? Elsewhere, a J M W Turner masterpiece goes under the hammer and the 1930's sports car which every eligible bachelor had to have is sold at Blenheim Palace.

A limestone carved head by tragic sculptor Amadeo Modigliani is up for sale in Paris, estimated at six million Euros. In London, a rare violin is estimated at half a million and Earl Spencer clears out his stately home in the attic sale of the century.

Princess Diana's black dress - discovered in a bin bag - goes to a good home, and a grand silver wine cistern leads a sale of exquisite 'treasures' in London. And, in Paris, the forgotten collection of an art dealer is sent to auction.

An Irish nobleman sells some of the family silver to keep his castle wind and watertight, and, in Paris, a bicycle made in 1941 by a hero of the French resistance fetches a record price.

The cars are the stars in a sale of classics at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. In London, twentieth century British art goes under the hammer featuring a painting by Winston Churchill and a little-known work by Lowry.

Would you pay over £30,000 for a handbag? Some women will - especially if it involves following in the footsteps of the actress Grace Kelly. And, in Connecticut, all eyes are on the yellow Rolls Royce which Robert Redford drove in The Great Gatsby.

Winston Churchill - one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century - is remembered in a sale of memorabilia, including the youngest-known portrait and a cigar which he gave to an admirer. And Russian art comes to London in an auction of exquisite jewel boxes.

Brian Hollins started collecting Hornby trains before the Second World War and now his collection of some of the rarest model locomotives in the world is up for sale. In New York, some of the oddest twentieth century furniture you will ever have seen is sold.

A Darth Vader costume from the Star Wars films goes up for sale, and items from the attic of the Duke of Devonshire's Chatsworth House are put up for auction.

A book by 19th-century naturalist John James Audubon attracts record-breaking bids and a collection of the Duchess of Windsor's jewels comes up for sale.