A Lebanese property developer living in England has paid 352,411 pounds (US$509,768) for license plate number “1D”, a new record in the world of collectible British license plates.

At an auction held by the DVLA, the agency which regulates British vehicle registration, the highly-coveted plate sold for a total of 285,000 pounds, but fees and taxes added nearly 70,000 pounds to the winning bid.

The winning bidder bought the plate as a birthday present for his wife and will affix it to her Bentley. After taxes and fees, it ranks as the second most expensive plate sold after “F 1″ went for 440,625 pounds last year.

Japanese fashion designer Kenzo Takada will auction off some of the art that inspired his East-meets-West style, as he trades his plush Paris mansion for smaller digs on the Seine River.

The announcement came a month after the late Yves Saint-Laurent’s art collection was put up for auction by his partner Pierre Berge, a 373.5-million-euro bonanza that caused friction with China over a pair of looted bronze relics.

From Hopi Kachina dolls to bronze Buddhas, more than 1,000 pieces collected over the past two decades will be on the block at the June 16-17 sale organized by Aguttes auction house.

At fabulous “Tribute to Cinema” event, Moët & Chandon revealed its iconic muse before a Dazzling Array of International Who’s Who, including Thandie Newton, Joseph Fiennes and Melanie Laurent: the beautiful Scarlett Johansson.

Moët is the very first champagne company to introduce a Hollywood celebrity ambassador as the face of the world’s most loved champagne.

The supermodel Kate Moss has auctioned a kiss for charity.

Kate sold the smooch for £5,000 in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital, a specialist children’s hospital in London, at a fundraiser on Wednesday night.

She now plans to meet the lucky man, a banker , at his workplace to give him a smacker.

An 8th-century tortoiseshell vanity box, said to be a gift from the Tang Dynasty palace to Japan’s Emperor Shomu, will be auctioned in Hong Kong and may fetch more than HK$40 million ($5 million).

The octagonal box, measuring 35.6 centimeters across and embedded with mother-of-pearl and amber in shapes of flowers, is the highlight of Sotheby’s planned sale of antiques, gems and paintings on April 8.

The item had once resided at the repository of the Todaiji, or Great Eastern Temple, in the southern Japanese prefecture of Nara.

Indian carpet made of pearls and gems today fetched a record $5.5 million at the first series of auctions held by Sotheby’s in the Gulf state of Qatar.

The 5-foot-8-inch by 8-foot-8-inch Pearl Carpet of Baroda had been commissioned in 1865 by the Maharajah of the former Indian state of Baroda, possibly as a gift for the tomb of the prophet Mohammed at Medina, said Sotheby’s.

The carpet, with more than 1 million natural Basra seed pearls, had never been offered before at auction and was expected to fetch at least $5 million, said Sotheby’s.