In a bold recognition of the world’s fastest-growing auction market, Sotheby’s recently hoisted China‘s flag at the most conspicuous spot outside its New York headquarters.

The flag now flies between those of the US, UK, France, and Switzerland, where the auction house has established its core client base.

“We proposed it. To my great surprise, not only was the Chinese flag hoisted, it was hoisted in the middle,” Kevin Ching, chief executive officer of Sotheby’s in Asia, told AFP.

Hong Kong has become the world’s third largest auction hub after New York and London, thanks to the rising political and economic prowess of China.

A Palm Beach billionaire has uncorked a suit charging Christie’s auction house is in cahoots with counterfeit wine sellers.

William Koch is still steaming about four bottles of wine supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson that he bought for more than $300,000, which allegedly turned out to be fakes.

He’s already sued the seller – and now he’s trained his sights on the auction house, claiming it knew the Bordeaux was bogus.

A Picasso painting owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Art Foundation, which was at the centre of a dispute about its Nazi-era history, is to go under the hammer.

Lloyd Webber — composer of musicals like “Cats” — originally announced his intention to sell “Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto” for charity in 2006.

It was later withdrawn from auction after a claim that a previous owner, German-Jewish banker Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, had sold it under duress from the Nazi regime in Germany in the 1930s.

But von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s descendants reached an out-of-court settlement in the US in January with the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, which is selling the picture, allowing it to retain ownership.

A Picasso masterpiece unseen in public for 43 years fetched more than twice its expected price at auction – going for £8.1million at last night’s Christie’s sale.

Tete de Femme (Jacqueline), a 1963 portrait of the artist’s second wife, had not been seen in public since 1967 and was expected to fetch £4million.

Jacqueline had an unusually short neck and it is said that Picasso would jokingly exaggerate its size in his portraits – as in this elongated example.

Gucci has always been vigilant to crack down on counterfeiting and trademark infringement, but now they’re taking a new angle on brand protection.

On January 18, 2010, Gucci and Christie’s will launch “Gucci Collector: Presented by Christie’s”— the very first Gucci-certified online destination for authenticating and appraising vintage Gucci products.

A dedicated section on www.christies.com will allow owners to upload photos of their vintage items and submit an appraisal request.

A letter penned by George Washington praising the new Constitution sold for $3.2 million at an auction, the highest price for a letter by America’s first president.

The four-page letter was written in 1787 to the president’s nephew, Bushrod Washington, and urges adoption of the country’s new constitution.

Last year, a 1864 letter in which President Abraham Lincoln replies to the abolitionist pleas of youth sold for $3.4 million.