The world's great auction houses open their doors as letters written by Giuseppe Verdi, a sculpture by Constantin Brancusi and a rarely seen Picasso go under the hammer.

A rare painting by Christopher Nevinson comes to Sotheby's, while bidders scramble for the last painting by Winston Churchill - of his beloved goldfish pool at Chartwell.

Salvator Mundi, the long-lost Leonardo da Vinci painting of Jesus Christ commissioned by King Louis XII, is set to break all records at auction at Christie's in New York.