Editor’s picks | | | There’s an ambiguity to the title of The Haunted House Keeper, painted by Hernan Bas in 2020. The large-scale work depicts a young worker mopping the floor of a fairground ghost train, with garishly spooky images all around. But is he merely the keeper of the haunted house or, as his expression suggests, is he himself haunted by his own uneasy thoughts? Estimate: CNY 2,600,000-4,600,000 7 November, Shanghai | | | | | | Wildly eccentric outfits for masquerade balls dominate this volume of 17th-century etchings by Nicolas Larmessin and others. The 82 costumes grotesques et métiers represent various walks of life, from a doctor whose body is a medicine cabinet to an astrologer covered in zodiac signs, including the ram of Aries sitting on his head Estimate: €20,000-30,000 until 29 October, Online | | | | | | The work of Mahmoud Saïd, a pioneer of modern Arab art, deftly combines figuration and abstraction. In his View of the beach at Cassata in Greece — completed in 1964, shortly before the artist’s death — boats with smoking funnels are arranged in a rhythmic trio, while natural forms blend with geometric lines in the mountains and sky beyond Estimate: £250,000-350,000 31 October, London | | | | | | From crocodiles and butterflies to peacocks and panthers, Cartier jewels have featured a menagerie of animals over the years. Taking its place in that history is this ‘Parrot Lovebirds’ brooch, dating from 1999. The platinum and gold birds are covered in diamonds, while their eyes and beaks are made of onyx — as is their perch Estimate: HK$10,000-20,000 until 6 November, Online | | | | | | |
