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Polar explorer Isaac Israel Hayes supplied Church with sketches from his 1860 expedition; the ship frozen beneath the lights is Hayes’s SS United States. During the American Civil War, contemporary viewers interpreted auroras as divine omens connected to the Union, the Confederac

It depicts the moment after Macbeth murders King Duncan: he recoils with the bloody daggers while Lady Macbeth rushes to return them to the chamber. The composition was inspired by celebrated actress Sarah Siddons, who selected Lady Macbeth for her farewell performance in 1812.

Thomas Cole’s The Titan’s Goblet (1833) puts a miniature civilization on a giant cup: boats cross its water while classical ruins ring the rim. Its meaning remains unresolved; proposed sources range from Norse and Greek mythology to Cole’s travels in Italy.

Judy Chicago has a new auction record. Pasadena Lifesavers Blue Series #5 (1970) sold for US$486,400, including buyer's premium, at Christie's New York on 1 October 2026. Sprayed acrylic lacquer covers its acrylic panel, which measures almost 1.5 metres on each side.

A Nara drawing for $4,128. C'Mon Everybody, drawn in colored pencil on an envelope, sold at Phillips New York on 26 September 2026, including buyer's premium. It was offered without reserve: there was no minimum sale price agreed with the seller to protect the lot.

Adolphe-William Bouguereau’s Orestes Pursued by the Furies (1862) freezes the instant after Orestes kills his mother to avenge his father. Three snake-haired Furies swarm him while he covers his ears, making vengeance look impossible to shut out.

The scene comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: after the sea god Glaucus rejects Circe, she poisons Scylla’s bathing place and transforms her into a sea monster. An Adelaide critic wrote“repels rather than attracts the average sightseer.” It became one of gallery’s beloved works.

An iPad drawing, a £77,400 print. David Hockney's Untitled No. 19 (2010), from The Yosemite Suite, sold at Phillips London on 19 September 2026, including buyer's premium. The physical print is signed and numbered 25/25: digital art can have a limited paper edition.

This net is carved from marble. In Francesco Queirolo's Disillusion (1753-54), it represents sin entangling a man. The flame on his winged helper's forehead symbolizes human intellect: the means of finding a way out.

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Sadak is a Persian nobleman seeking magical water after a sultan promises to release his abducted wife in exchange for it. Martin placed Sadak at the very bottom beneath overwhelming cliffs.

A new auction record for Ivan Peries. The Well (1957) sold for $640,000 including buyer's premium at Christie's New York on 16 September 2026. Shown at the 1958 Venice Biennale, it is the only one of his seven monumental panel paintings ever offered at auction.

Böcklin personified the plague then spreading through India as the Black Death riding a dragon through a town. He developed the image from cholera designs made in 1876; typhus and cholera had also repeatedly threatened him and his family.

A $66,000 buffalo. John Nieto's Buffalo Medicine (1999) sold at Scottsdale Art Auction in Arizona on 22 August 2026, including buyer's premium. The house calls it a record for his wildlife paintings: a category record need not be an artist's highest price overall.

Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for $236.4m at Sotheby’s on 18 November 2025. The winning bid was $205m. Fees added about $31.4m showing why the headline sale price is not the seller’s take-home amount.

The dead are not being punished. They’re waiting. In Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl’s Souls at the River Acheron, pale crowds press toward Hermes as Charon’s boat emerges from the darkness.

A pale flower waits beside a black pond. Death waits behind the trees. Akseli Gallen-Kallela made Flower of Death in 1895 after losing his young daughter Marjatta. Its quietness makes the grief almost unbearable.

Two figures stand before infinity. In Gustave Doré’s 1868 wood engraving The Empyrean, Dante and Beatrice face a celestial rose—angels and blessed souls circling a light beyond measure. Would you step closer, or turn away?

Welcome to the Vault. A place for art, culture, and the ideas behind them. We’ll be sharing the details and moments that make great works of art worth looking at.