Picasso painting to be auctioned

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.

Rare Islamic ewer expected to fetch over $5 million

One of the rarest and most desirable works of art from the Islamic world, a carved rock crystal ewer from the Fatimid Royal Treasury, dating to the late 10th to early 11th century AD, will be offered at the strongest sale of Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds ever staged at Christie’s, on Tuesday 7 October 2008.

Estimated to realise in excess of £3 million ($5.3 million), this Fatimid ewer is one of only seven fully- carved known surviving examples and the first and only one to be offered on the open market.

Few objects evoke the richness of mediaeval Islamic culture as much as the small group of carved rock crystal ewers made for the court of the Fatimid rulers of Cairo in the late 10th and early 11th centuries. One of these is the treasure at the centre of this sale. It is further embellished with enamelled gold mounts, illustrated right, made in 1854, by the French silversmith Jean-Valentin Morel, who was appointed Goldsmith to Queen Victoria in 1852

This is an historic opportunity for private collectors and institutions around the world. The auction is anticipated to sport an amazing grouping of exceptional artworks ranging from diverse geographical areas, materials and time and is expected to generate over £11 million ($19 million).

Rare 3.69 carat ruby sold for $19,600 on eBay

An American has purchased a rare intense red 3.69 carat ruby on eBay India for Rs. 8,20,000 ($19,600) making it one of the most expensive jewelry items sold on the country-specific Web auction site.

Arvind Juneja, a Jaipur resident has a family business of Jewellery and registered on eBay in October 2007. He has sold more than 90 pieces of jewelry and gems since October, 2007 on the Web site. His eBay id is “Jewelsafari.”

“I am an avid collector of precious gemstones,” he said. “I wanted to trade my collection with the buyers who really understand the worth of these priceless and unique gemstones. I am glad that this stone is in the hands of someone who appreciates its true worth.”

The rare ruby is AGTA Certified (American Gem Trade Association Gem Testing Center)

Rare Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupé sells for $8 million

A rare 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupe sold for $7.92 million at Gooding & Co.'s auto auction during the annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in California over the weekend

With its streamlined styling, low-slung chassis and supercharged engine, the Type 57SC Atalante is one of the most desirable Bugattis. It was designed by Jean Bugatti as a two-seater sports coupe and became the rarest of the four different body styles offered at Carrosorie Bugatti : only seven were manufactured.

The Bugatti Type 57 was solely a road-going vehicle and is considered the most celebrated of all non-racing Bugattis.

Though It is the highest price ever paid for an automobile at auction in the U.S.A.. A few months ago, British radio host, Chris Evans, set the world record for the highest price ever paid for a vintage car, when he paid $10,894,900 for a 1961 Ferrari California Spyder at RM Auction’s second annual “Ferrari Leggenda e Passione” auction in Maranello, Italy.

Christie's Wine Auction in Hong Kong

After an absence of seven years, Christie’s wine department will be back in Asia for an auction on 29 Nov 2008 at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre and it will open Christie's Hong Kong Fall 2008 Sale Season.

Christie's International Wine Department will conduct a focused sale of fine wine including select offerings from the cellars of first growth, Château Latour.

Christie’s Hong Kong sales totaled HK $2.4 billion in Spring 2008, the highest total ever achieved for any auction season in Asia.

The evening sale will feature around 250 selected lots, with 150 lots from Château Latour. One of the top prizes is a 1900 magnum estimated at $18,000 - $24,000. The Latour selection in its entirety is expected to realize in excess of HK $10 million.

Alongside the unique offering from Château Latour will be a further range of fine and rare wines, all sourced from impeccable European cellars, including rare Pétrus and other First Growth Bordeaux, a selection of exceptional Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, vintage Champagne and venerable Vintage Port and Old Cognacs.

A $300,000 Polished steel sofa

The first auction devoted solely to contemporary design will take place at Christie's in New York this autumn.

"It really is an increasingly popular market," said Carina Villinger, design specialist of Christie's New York. "There is a huge overlap with contemporary art. It has got to the point where we need a separate auction.

The Christie's sale will feature items such as a polyurethane table by the London-based Iranian architect Zaha Hadid, who designed the aquatics centre for the London Olympics, estimated to raise $200,000.

Another lot will be a highly polished steel sofa by the British-born Israeli designer Ron Arad for $300,000. Arad's work will be exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York next year.That sofa is made of steel that’s polished to match the reflection of a real mirror!

Via Independant

$900 for 35 grapes

Fruit is generally expensive in Japan and the locals seem to buy the fruits only as luxury gifts. After the Watermelon auctioned for $6,100 and the $2000 mangoes, a bunch of grapes fetched a record $900 (for 35 grapes). "We believe the price was probably a record high," said local agricultural official Hirofumi Isu. Of course, as a French guy, I treasure grapes, but still… $26 per grape !

That's how much one hotel manager in Japan paid for a bunch of Ruby Roman grapes, though, at an auction in Japan's northwestern Ishikawa region where the grapes have been under state development since 1994. The average price for the Ruby Roman grapes at Monday's auction was about $240.

This guy purchased the grapes to serve his hotel guests. These tomato-colored grapes are supposedly sweet, refreshing and very well-balanced.

Japanese are often willing to pay top prices for high-end fruits, it is considered prestigious to be the first ones to buy the very first fruit of the year.

Lord offers title and property for sale on eBay

Here we go again, in the old tradition of selling lives, personalities and organs on ebay...

An eccentric British Lord is selling his title and property on Internet auction site eBay and has attracted bids of over three million pounds, he said Friday.

David Piper, who describes himself as "Lord of the Manor of Warleigh," includes a nine-bedroom house in Plymouth, modern art collection and two Bentley cars in the price. Also included in the auction are six acres of freehold land at Great Warleigh Farm, Tamerton Foliot, near Plymouth.

The 58-year-old entrepreneur said he is making the sale because he wants to move to London to receive treatment for advanced prostate cancer. "I have decided, as a result of having this rather advanced prostate cancer, and not having been able to work since January 2007, to have treatment done in London.

"Therefore I will sell everything up down here and move back to London," he said, adding that he hopes to generate up to six million pounds from the auction sale. His advertisement says the sale "can include David, the existing eccentric lord of the manor physically as well, to a suitable purchaser."So yes, you would be able to call yourself Lord of the Manor of Warleigh should you win his auction.

It is not the first time Piper has hit the headlines : Mr Piper received widespread publicity in 2002 when he placed a lonely hearts advertisement in the International Herald Tribune, seeking a soulmate with a sense of humour, receiving over 2,000 replies.

One of them was from US estate agent Rosaura Capelleri who moved to Britain to see how their relationship developed, but left Piper's estate after two weeks.

Best of luck to the Lord of Warleigh regarding his health (source : AFP)

Sports & Classics of Monterey

On August 15-16, the world-renowned auction house, RM Auctions, will present the Sports & Classics of Monterey, an auction event featuring a varied selection of the finest sports and classic cars in their largest offering to date - $50-60 million.

A rare and coveted 1958 Chrysler Diablo, considered the most valuable concept car of the late 1950s and conceived by Virgil Exner, will make its auction debut as one of the headlining cars alongside 24 Ferraris, the largest collection of Ferraris ever presented at the classic car weekend in Monterey.

Last year’s auction brought a record-breaking $46 million in total sales as 190 cars crossed the block. Nine cars broke the magic million-dollar mark !

Jimi Hendrix Burnt Guitar May Fetch $1,000,000 at Auction

A guitar Jimi Hendrix burnt on stage will be sold by rock and film memorabilia auctioneers The Fame Bureau at the Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch, London, on September 4.

The 1965 Fender Stratocaster, which he doused in lighter fluid and then set on fire at the Astoria in London in March 1967, is anticipated to fetch around £500,000 ($1million).

At the end of his show Hendrix set fire to the base of his Fender Stratocaster – as the astonished audience looked on and petrified venue staff ushered the performer off. Hendrix injured himself and had to be taken to hospital with minor burns on his hands.

Hendrix did his burning guitar stunt twice during his career. The one up for auction is the only one still in existence.

New World Record Auction Price Set for A Jaguar Motor Car

On 11 July 2008 at The Goodwood Festival of Speed in Chichester, international fine art auctioneers Bonhams set a new world record auction price for any Jaguar motor car.

The 1955 Jaguar D-type Sports Racing Car ‘XKD509’ was sold to a British buyer for a whopping £2,201,500 ($4,4 million). This figure betters the previous world record of $3,396,475, set in 1999.

The 3.4-litre car was the first Jaguar D-Type to go into and its price, when sold new in 1955, was a princely £2,500 ($5,000).

Sgt Pepper Drum Skin Sells At Auction

The drum skin used on the cover of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album has sold for £541,250 ($1.07m) at auction in London, almost four times the estimate.

The skin was a hand-painted item that was only ever used for the cover of the classic 1967 album.
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was not only one of The Beatles biggest albums, it was also one of the most important albums ever from the rock era. The Beatles began recording the album on December 6, 1966 and spent the next 129 days in recording. That was an amazing time for a recording in the 60s.

The Sgt Pepper skin was just one of many Beatles items that sold at the auction : a pair of tinted prescription sunglasses belonging to Lennon, which the singer wore for the cover of the single Mind Games, raised £39,650 ($78,400) and the hand-written lyrics to "Give Peace A Chance" sold for £421,250 ($833,000). (source)

World record price for Jeff Koon

Christie's sold last week Jeff Koon's Ballon Flower (Magenta) for $25,752,051, a world record price for the artist at auction. at its Post War and Contemporary Art auction. This work is one of five unique versions: Magenta, Blue, Orange, Yellow, Red and was executed between 1995 and 1999.

Balloon Flower (Magenta) 1995-2000 is from a top Dallas art collector who paid less than £600,000 for it seven years ago. It was the first time a work of this scale and quality by Koons were publicly offered in London.

It's the most difficult decision I've ever made about a work of art," says Mr. Rachofsky to the Dallas Morning News, who purchased it in 1998 and installed it in the center of the pond on the north end of his Preston Hollow estate.

"We came to terms with the idea that to be able to effectively develop the collection in our areas of primary interest – American minimalism, Italian postwar art and German painting – we would let this piece go. It presents opportunities to advance the collection in ways we would not otherwise have been able to achieve."

The work, with its mirrored surface and monumental scale, is a celebrated icon within Koons' oeuvre and took him nearly ten years to complete. The motifs for the series of large-format sculptures and paintings called "Celebration" seem, like "Balloon Flowers", to have been taken from children's books or fairy-tales, or even from a gift catalogue.

It is said to pay homage to life's celebratory and cyclical events, like birthdays, nature - through the flower-like form - and holidays.

Via artknowledgenews

world’s most expensive newspaper copy

The Worlds Record Academy included among its recorda the newspaper copy “Zimbrulu and Vulturulu” (which means “the Aurochs and the Eagle”) as the most expensive newspaper in the world.
The daily is currently showcased at the EFIRO 2008 World Philatelic Exhibition in Bucharest (the first edition happened in 1932).

The 1858 copy of the Zimbrulu si Vulturulu newspaper copy was printed in Iasi, eastern Romania, was accidentally stamped with eight Auroch heads.
The newspaper’s destination was Galati (south eastern Romania) where it was bought by a stamp collecting bookshop owner. Afterwards, the owners’ traces vanished until 1969. The priceless paper found its way into the hands of the David Feldman auction house. From there it was auctioned in 2006 to art collector Joseph Hackmey for €829,500 ($1.3 million).

Today, the Romanian stamps are among the highest acclaimed in the world, with Romania ranking seventh in the classification of the most beautiful stamps in the world.

Titanic life jacket sells for $70k

An unused life jacket from the doomed transatlantic cruise ship "Titanic," which struck an iceberg in 1912 and sank, fetched 68,500 dollars at auction at Christie's in New York late Wednesday.

The cork-filled life preserver - still largely intact, but stained and torn in parts - was thought to have been found by farmer John James Dunbar on the Halifax shoreline after the passenger ship sank off Newfoundland in April, 1912.

The liner sank during its maiden voyage from the British port of Southampton to New York when it hit an iceberg, causing some 1,500 people to die. About 700 people are believed to have survived the sinking, one of the worst maritime disasters ever.

There is still huge public interest in Titanic memorabilia as the sinking of the ship, which had been billed as unsinkable, caused such a loss of life and was one of the first world-wide news events

Maritime specialist Gregg Dietrich said the jacket - believed to be one of six remaining - appeared to have been unused because the shoulder straps were still intact. Titanic passengers tended to have had their life preservers cut off to ease removal from their damaged skin.

Mr Dietrich said that the cork filling the jackets was so heavy that many of the survivors and victims of Titanic were found to have broken their jaws on them when they hit the water after jumping from the ship.

Source : reuters

Record sale for Monet masterpiece

A Claude Monet painting has fetched a record £40.9m ($80.5 million) for the artist's work at an auction in London.

"Le Bassin aux Nympheas" had been expected to fetch 18-24 million pounds, but after an intense bidding battle it smashed the previous Monet auction record (Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil ) of $41.5 million set in May.
Painted in 1919 in Giverny in France it has been seen in public just once in the past 80 years. The identity of the bidder has not been made public.

It was part of the evening sale of impressionist and modern art at Christie's which raised 144 million pounds ($283 million), the highest total for an auction in Europe. All figures include buyers' premiums.

Art expert Charles Dupplin said despite "current financial jitters around the world" art lovers are still willing to pay money for "exquisite, unique items". He added: "Art lovers everywhere should be cheered to see that, despite gloomy predictions, the art market looks to have a healthy future."

Watch the video on BBC news

Sotheby's Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art

Both Sotheby's and Christie's are holding significant Impressionist and Modern evening sales in London this week. "We're seeing a very strong market for top quality Impressionist paintings this summer," the vice chairman of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide at Sotheby's, Helena Newman, said.

On Wednesday, Sotheby's will put up Monet's "La Plage à Trouville" expected to fetch between $14 million and $20 million. "It's an iconic work," Ms. Newman said. "Monet was exploring the effects of the wind and the light on the water, all quintessentially Impressionist effects."

Monet completed his painting in 1870 while vacationing with his wife and son at the tony French resort town of Trouville.

The world's most expensive die

An incredibly valuable Roman glass gaming die was sold in 2003 at auction by the famous Christie's auction house for $17,925. Deep blue-green in color, the large twenty-sided die is incised with a distinct symbol on each of its faces.

It was the property of a Maryland fine arts professor and were acquired by his father in Egypt in the 1920s.

Several polyhedra in various materials with similar symbols are known from the Roman period but the funny thing is that historians have not yet established the game for which these dice were used !

Chinese seal sells for record price

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. Bearing six red calligraphic figures along with two dragons frolicking in the clouds, the seal is 14 centimetres long and 10 centimetres wide.

Kangxi's 61-year-rule makes him the longest-reigning Chinese emperor in history and one of the longest in the world. Emperors of China, their families and officials used large seals usually made of jade, although hard woods and precious metals could sometimes be used.
What made the seal especially rare was that it was found in its original ivory-and-lacquer box and the fact that it was unusually large.

This seal were found in the closet of a wealthy Toulouse family who were not aware of either its use or value. It had long disappeared from China but is now finally destined to return to its homeland !

Pictures :AFP

Onassis Jewelry Sale

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.