A seal of the Chinese emperor Kangxi sold at auction in the southern French city Toulouse for 4.7 million Euros (USD 7.2 million), a world record price for such an object, the sale`s organisers said on Saturday.

It is a world record for a seal and a European record for a Chinese object. It was bought by an unnamed buyer or buyers from China bidding by telephone.

The three kilogram (six-and-a-half pound) beige soapstone seal was one of 130 personal seals used by the emperor Kangxi, who ruled between 1662 and 1722.

A diamond necklace that used to belong to Christina Onassis, daughter of Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis, sold at auction on Wednesday for $7.1 million.

The necklace, with a 38-carat pear-shaped diamond, was the highlight of the Onassis jewelery auction at Christie’s in London. It is a reminder of the glamour associated with the Onassis family and a fitting example of the great jewelry and art the Onassis family was known for collecting

Christina Onassis was the only daughter of Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who went on to marry JF Kennedy’s widow Jacqueline.
She lived a life of luxury, but there was tragedy too, as she lost both her parents and a brother within the space of two years. Christina died in 1987 of a heart attack. She was just 37 years old.
Her jewelery collection was put on sale by her daughter Athina.

The auction also included the so-called Faberge Buddha which sold for $2.5 million : This was a jade-colored Buddha by Peter Carl Faberge, renowned for creating ornamental eggs for Russia’s imperial family.

The desk where Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations and his final correspondence hours before his death fetched £433,250 ($850,000) at auction on Wednesday, around seven times its pre-sale estimate.

“It’s a part of Charles Dickens, so I’m delighted to be its owner,” Tom Higgins told Reuters by telephone after the sale. “I’ve been a huge Dickens fan for a long time. I actually think it’s worth a lot more than what I paid for it and expected it could have gone for as much as five million (pounds).
“I think it’s a bargain, really,” added Higgins, 49, who plans to be Ireland’s first space tourist.

He added that the fact that proceeds from the sale were going to Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London made it easier to part with the cash.

Christie’s sold the furniture as part of its valuable books and manuscripts sale in London, and the price includes the buyer’s premium.
The writing desk and chair from the study of Dickens’ Gad’s Hill residence near Rochester, Kent, was passed on by descent to Christopher Charles Dickens and his wife Jeanne-Marie Dickens. She then donated them to Great Ormond Street, with which Dickens had a close association.

Acker Merrall & Condit conducted its first wine auction in Hong Kong on May 31, which realized $8.2 million and established new record.

The total was the highest for any wine auction held in Hong Kong to date (the sales was held in the wake of new Hong Kong legislation that abolished all taxes and duties on wine).

Bidding was fiercely competitive for a case of 6 magnums of Château Mouton Rothschild 1945 which fetched HK$1,306,000 (US$167,436) and a case of 12 bottles of Château Mouton Rothschild 1945 sold for HK$1,210,000 (US$155,128).

A Gundam painting by Japanese artist Tenmyouya Hisashi lately fetched HK$4.8 million (approx. US$600,000) at Hong Kong based Christie’s auction house. The painting “RX-78-2 Kabuki-mono 2005 Version” reflects a perfect blend of traditionalism with modernism. Tenmyouya Hisashi has this to say about his artwork :

“In Japan there are many “Gundam-Otaku’s,” and their adoration of Gundam is intense. Therefore, I did not want to change their image of Gundam. By changing Gundam’s “mobile suit” to tattoos, I altered his body, and made him even more customized. I emphasized the very concept of the “mobile suit,” and by setting Gundam against a background of gold leaf from traditional Japanese painting, I emphasized Gundam’s samurai origins. In my mind, the distinctions between combat video games, manga, and ukiyo-e have become blurred. This is a painting that combines on a single screen the features of moving images, manga frames, and single prints.”

Luxist inform us that rare South American stamps, in fact the world’s most valuable private collection of South American postage stamps, will be offered in a public auction in New York City on June 5 and 6, 2008.

The auction includes for instance the only surviving example of the 1859 one-peso “tête-bêche,” which has a pre-sale estimate of $400,000 to $500,000.
There is also an envelope from Chile with a unique block of 14 lithographed 5-centavo stamps of 1854 which is $400,000 to $500,000.
From Colombia there is a letter with a 5-centavo and a10-centavo stamp dated September 1, 1859, the first day these very first stamps of Colombia were issued The pre-sale estimate is $200,000 to $300,000.
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