The Connoisseur

The most expensive car sold at a British auction this year was four years old. That tells you where the money has gone, and where it hasn't.

The indices say fine wine has turned the corner. The trading data say something narrower: buyers are back, but only for wines they already know.

Sotheby's will offer a Van Gogh unseen in public for half a century on 18 November. The estimate is 54 per cent above the artist's auction record. That's not a valuation; it's a bet.