A numbered copy of The Beatles self-titled album (aka The White Album) has sold for £19,201 (nearly US $30,000) on eBay. An unknown seller out of Linz, Austria sold the album. It is numbered 0000005.

The original numbered 1-4 were given to the individual Beatles John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Designer Richard Hamilton gave the cover numbers as a joke. He liked the irony of a “limited edition” of 5 million. Little did Richard know that 5 million was only a speck out what the album would eventually sell. It has sold 4 times that in the USA alone.

Record Collector magazine has ranked the rare copy No. 1 in its list of the 200 Rarest Records of All Time.

This extraordinary blue-gray diamond (on the picture above) was given to Infanta Margarita Teresa by her father King Philip IV of Spain, on her engagement to her uncle Leopold I of Austria-one of the most historic events in European history.
This girl was the portrayed in Las Meninas), the most famous painting by Spaniard Diego Velazquez. In a political move, she was engaged to Leopold I, who later became the Holy Roman Emperor, and that was when her father gave his 13-year-old daughter the diamond as part of the dowry. Sadly she died aged only 21, having given birth to four child, of which only one survived beyond childhood.

It is believed that the Wittelsbach diamond originated from the Indian diamond mines, was passed into the Austrian and then Bavarian crown jewels, and was finally sold into private hands in 1931. It makes part of the current private collection since 1964.

According to a Christie’s spokesman said “no examples” of coloured diamonds comparable to the Wittelsbach have been put up in an auction before.
“Blue diamonds are rare and to offer a blue diamond of this size, quality, shape and provenance is truly extraordinary.” Actually, the nearest comparable coloured diamond sold at Christie’s was one just a third of the size, a 13.39 carat intense blue diamond that fetched £5.5 million ($8.9 million) in May.

In addition, “the appearance of a large blue diamond, among the rarest of colours, with a history that can be traced back to the 17th century and 300 years of royal connections will surely be a thrilling occasion for all collectors of exceedingly rare jewels and works of art.”

The Wittelsbach diamond is the star lot in Christie’s auction Jewels: According to estimates, the 35.56-carat gem, almost once inch in width, with a 300-year-old royal history, could raise up to 10million pounds ($16 million) when it goes under the hammer on December 10.

It is on public display at the auction house in King Street, St James’s, London, on Friday 5 December and from Sunday 7 to Tuesday 9 December.

A new world record was set in London At the latest RM Auctions event held on October 29 when a beautiful and rare British-made 1997 McLaren F1 supercar sold for $4 million.

One of only 75 examples made, the car on offer more than doubled its pre-sale estimate to the astonishment of observers who conjectured world economic factors might dampen bidders’ enthusiasm.

One of the first carbon fiber-bodied production cars, the F1 was the fastest street legal production car in the world for over a decade, the longest period the record has been held by any street legal or production car in the history of automobiles.

Antiquorum auctioned off Albert Einstein’s 1930 Longines wristwatch last week. The house estimated the watch would fetch up to $35,000. They got $520,000. (With fees, the total came to $596,000.) That’s over 2000% higher than the estimated price, and a record for any Longines at auction.

The tonneau-shaped watch, made of 14K gold bears the inscription “Prof. Albert Einstein, Los Angeles, Feb. 16, 1931.” According to information from Antiquorum, the timepiece was manufactured by Longines in 1930, and presented to the famous scientist one year later. The white dial bears large gold-colored Arabic figures, a feature doubtless appreciated by Einstein, a sufferer of poor eyesight.

Last Monday at Drouot, Paris main auction room, a piece of Eiffel tower staircase was sold for 80,500 euros ($105,000). It’s 3 meters and a half high, 20-step section, 1 meter 70 cm round, and weights over 700 kilos.

It’s a piece of a staircase leading from second to third floor, which was cut in twenty four pieces and sold in auction in 1983.

The original 1911-step staircase leading up the tower was removed so that elevators could be installed. Gustave Eiffel himself climbed the staircase in the 1889 inaugural ceremony.

One of the most important works by Pablo Picasso to appear on the market over the last several years will be offered by Sotheby’s in New York on the evening of November 3, 2008.

Arlequin dates to 1909, a pivotal moment in the history of modern art; just two years after Picasso completed his watershed composition, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Modeled with luminous shades of jade, rose and amber, this spectacular portrait depicts a harlequin, one of the most poignant motifs in the artist’s oeuvre.

For the last 50 years, this jewel of Picasso’s Cubist production has been a treasured possession of the Surrealist artist Enrico Donati, who died earlier this year at the age of 99. He purchased it in the 1940s directly from Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, the legendary dealer of Picasso and the Cubists.

The painting, which is expected to bring over $30 million, has been consigned by Mr. Donati’s estate. It will be seen by the public for the first time in more than 45 years when it goes on view at Sotheby’s London beginning October 3, 2008. It will then go on display at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art from 16-19 October and Sotheby’s New York from 29 October to 3 November.

Emmanuel Di-Donna, of Sotheby’s, said it was one the “greatest” Cubists to be sold on the open market. He added: “International collectors have not been presented with such a fantastic opportunity to compete for one of the great Picasso portraits since Sotheby’s sale of Dora Maar au chat.