An extremely rare translucent pink diamond fetched a price of $10.8 million at a Sotheby’s auction on Tuesday, the third-highest price ever paid for one of the pink stones at auction.

“It is the third-highest price for a pink diamond at auction,” auctioneer David Bennett told journalists after the sale.

The 10.99-carat, emerald-cut stone was classed as a type IIa diamond, with the type II category making up less than two percent of gem diamonds.

Two dresses worn by the late princess Diana were sold at an auction house in Beverly Hills Sunday for a total of $276,000, Julien’s auction house announced.

The first dress — a black crepe evening gown with diamante paste embroidery on the short-sleeved top inspired by Indian motifs — went for $144,000.

It was purchased for Diana’s 1992 visit to India, when she accompanied her then-husband, Prince Charles on the trip.

Two bottles of 200-year old champagne recently salvaged from a Baltic Sea shipwreck will be auctioned off in June.

Finland’s autonomous province of Aaland “has decided that two bottles will be sold at an exclusive champagne auction held in (the capital) Mariehamn on June 3, 2011″.

One of the auctioned bottles will be from the house of Veuve-Clicquot and the other from the now extinct house of Juglar.

AFP has confirmed rumors that the late actress’s collection of baubles, estimated to be worth $150 million, will hit the auction block later this year.

“Film icon Elizabeth Taylor’s collection of jewelry, artwork, clothing, and memorabilia will be sold at auction, according to Christie’s auction house“.

A series of auctions will officially be announced this spring, with highlights including her famous 69-carat Taylor-Burton diamond.

A portrait of Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor by Andy Warhol is expected to fetch up to $30m at an auction in New York.

“Liz #5″ is owned by hedge-fund manager Steven Cohen. The 1963 silkscreen will be sold at Phillips de Pury at its contemporary art sale on May 12.

The portrait shows the legendary actress smiling and her eyelids covered in blue eye shadow.

A celebrated masterpiece by Pablo Picasso has sold at Sotheby’s auction house in London for £25.2 million ($40,5 million), more than double its pre-auction valuation.

“La Lecture” is a work from the Spanish painter’s “annus mirabilis,” 1932, and depicts the artist’s famous muse, Marie-Therese Walter.

Seven bidders vied for the coveted Picasso work, the hammer eventually coming down after six minutes of bidding to finalise the sale to an anonymous phone buyer.