A porcelain sign that once marked the intersection of Wall and Broad streets fetched $116,500 at Christie’s in Manhattan yesterday.

The seller, Kevin Lessin, bought the vintage sign about 25 years ago from a dealer liquidating the estate of a collector of New York memorabilia.

The sign consists of two enamel plaques set crosswise, with Broad above Wall in white letters on a cobalt-blue background.

A sculpted stone head by artist Amedeo Modigliani sold at Christie’s in Paris on Monday for euro 43.2 million, breaking the record for a work by the Italian artist.

The sculpture dated from between 1910 and 1912 and had been estimated at between four and six million euros.

“It’s a record for a work by the artist in any category”, including paintings and sculptures, said Christie’s, which organised the sale.

A painting by leading Indian artist Syed Haider Raza sold for almost 2.4 million pounds in London on Thursday, setting a record for a modern Indian work.

“Saurashtra”, dated 1983, was estimated to fetch between 1.3 and 1.8 million pounds, but finally sold for 2,393,250 pounds including buyers’ premium.

The painting belonged to a key period in Raza’s career when he began to integrate elements of his Indian childhood and cultural heritage into his paintings.

A painting of water lilies by French impressionist Claude Monet is expected to fetch up to 40 million pounds when it is auctioned off in London.

The painting, will star among dozens of modern masterpieces this month in what is being billed as the most valuable art auction ever held in the city.

Painted in 1906, the work is part of the French Impressionist’s iconic Nympheas series and was included in his historic exhibition in Paris three years later.

A huge collection of diaries, letters and even a pristine cigar belonging to Winston Churchill was up for auction in London Wednesday.

The sale, which is expected to raise around one million pounds, is being billed by Christie’s as part of the most important private Churchill collection in the world.

It features his engagement diary for 1939 to 1945 which records meetings with leaders including US President Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin of Russia and Britain’s King George VI. It could fetch up to 120,000 pounds.

A 1932 Pablo Picasso painting of his mistress has sold for $106.5 million, a world record price for any work of art at auction.

“Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” which had a pre-sale estimate of between $70 million and $90 million, was sold at Christie’s auction house on Tuesday evening to an unidentified telephone bidder.

The Spanish master’s painting eclipses the record set in February, when Alberto Giacometti’s “Walking Man I” sculpture sold in London for 104.3 million.