BioArts International will next month hold an online auction to give five wealthy pet owners the opportunity to have their dogs cloned.

The successful bidders will be able to make a genetically-identical copy of an existing pet - or create a new puppy from the frozen tissue of a long-dead pet.

Bidding is expected to begin at more than $100,000.

While pet cloning may appear little more than a bizarre and morbid extravagance for the super-rich, it comes at a high price.

Cloning is still a hit-and-miss procedure and for almost every success comes a stream of miscarriages, stillbirths and premature deaths.

Animal welfare campaigners and ethical experts have condemned the move, accusing BioArts - the company offering the service - of exploiting owners’ fears over losing a pet.

But Lou Hawthorne, head of BioArts, believes there will be no shortage of those willing to pay for the chance to copy a beloved dog.

“It could easily end up being price comparable to a luxury car, or a vacation house,’ he said. ‘It’s not going to be cheap. But then the process isn’t cheap.” Via dailymail / AP

Two of the last ever shotguns developed by 200-year-old London luxury goods firm Asprey generated a sales of over $120,000 at Christie’s.

The extraordinarily delicate firearms exhibited at the Christie’s Fine Sporting Guns and Rifles sale marked the end of a custom of faultlessly accomplished gun craft.

Asprey engaged in supplying aristocracy and longtime holder of Royal Warrants shut down its gunrooms in 1996 for good, soon after the company was acquired by Prince Jefri of Brunei.

A Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder once owned by U.S. actor James Coburn fetched nearly $11 million (5.6 million pounds) at auction, making it the most valuable vintage car ever sold under the hammer, organisers said on Monday.

The rare black convertible was one of 33 cars and scores of Ferrari memorabilia sold at auction on Sunday in the luxury sports carmaker’s hometown of Maranello in northern Italy.

The 7 million euro price paid by British radio and television host Chris Evans eclipsed previous records for cars sold under auction, organisers RM Auctions said.

In this photo released by the Florida Keys News Bureau, a tiny solid gold combination toothpick and earwax scoop is displayed inside a clam shell Monday, May 19, 2008, in Key West, Fla.

A Blue Water Ventures salvage diver recovered the artifact Sunday, May 18, about 40 miles west of Key West during a search for remains of the Spanish galleon Santa Margarita that shipwrecked in a 1622 hurricane.

According to archaeologists, the 3-inch-long grooming tool is more than 385 years old and was probably worn on a gold chain. Estimated value could exceed $100,000

Find out more - ©2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

A blue diamond of 13.39 cts. became the most important color diamond sold at auction anywhere in the world during the past 10 years, according to Christie’s.

Offered at auction house’s in Geneva location on Wednesday, it achieved a world record price of $8.9 million.

“This impressive result is due to the scarcity of colored diamonds on the market, and to the great demand from collectors around the world for exceptional artworks and jewels that is currently dominating the auction world,” said François Curiel, chairman of Christie’s Europe. Via JCK

Two prized local melons fetched a record price of 2.5 million yen for the pair during the season’s first auction at a wholesale market on Tuesday.

“I had expected Yubari melons would fetch a high price, but I didn’t expect the figure to be this high,” said a startled broker at the Sapporo City Central Wholesale Markets in Sapporo’s Chuo-ku.

The pair of melons, which weigh 3.9 kilograms in total, fetched the record price of 2.5 million yen after 100 melons were put up for auction on Tuesday.