Johns 'Flag' Painting Sells for $28.6 Million
A Jasper Johns painting of the American flag in the collection of the late best-selling writer Michael Crichton sold for $28.6 million last night at a Christie's auction. The New York Times reports...
View ArticleModigliani Auction Breaks Record
A statue by artist Amedeo Modigliani was sold at Christie's in Paris for $52.8 million, making it the highest-priced work ever sold at a French auction.The sculpted stone head was the highest-priced...
View ArticlePolaroid Photos Sell High at Auction
Photographs by Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol and Lucas Samaras were among those on the auction block this week, when iconic images from the Polaroid corporate collection sold for record prices.The more than...
View ArticleFormer Madoff Employee's Property For Sale
Property from the Morris Plains, New Jersey home of Frank DiPascali, Bernard Madoff's former finance chief, will be auctioned off on Friday, the same week DiPascali was released on $10 million...
View ArticlePublic Television Sheds Old Gear
Old public television video cameras, LCD Teleprompters, eight-track tapes and even a bank of Princess phones were up for auction on Monday.WNET, the public television station, auctioned off around 500...
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Lehman Brothers' Art Collection Goes on the Block
Two years ago this month, Lehman Brothers filed the largest bankruptcy on record. That doesn’t mean, however, that the company has disappeared.On Wednesday, in a downtown courtroom, Lehman’s chief...
View ArticleThe Art of Farming, Food as Art
Sotheby’s, that venerable institution trading in fine art and fine things, will be hosting a special heirloom auction on Thursday evening—with a theme close to the heart of many New Yorkers: food.Yes,...
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Barbie Fashion: Creating the World’s Most Expensive Doll
Australian jewelry designer Stefano Canturi spent six months working on the smallest client he’s ever had: toymaker Mattel asked him to design a Barbie doll that would be the most expensive in the...
View ArticleBernie Madoff's Slippers and Wife's Ring on the Auction Block
A small slice of the disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's prized possessions will be sold at auction in New York this November.The items will include: a pair of size 8 1/2 black velveteen slippers with...
View ArticleRecord-Breaking Modigliani Sale Kicks Off Fall Art Auction Season
The pitter patter of expensive footwear and high-end suits returned en masse to Sotheby's on Tuesday night to kick off a fortnight of annual autumn Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art...
View ArticleChristie's Sells Matisse for $48.8 Million at Fall Auction
Sotheby's had a good night on Tuesday at its Impressionist and Modern art evening auction. On Wednesday night, Christie's did its part to open the fall auction season. It sold 84 works of art for...
View ArticleBuyers Pay More for Warhols, Lichtenstein Than Projected
Andy Warhol's works of art have sold above their projected pricetags at two out of three of this week's contemporary art auction sales.On Monday, Phillips de Pury and Company sold 59 works of art for...
View ArticleFans Pack Auction House to Bid On Lena Horne's Estate
On Wednesday afternoon, some 150 fans tried to get a piece of the legendary Hollywood star from Brooklyn—Lena Horne—at Doyle New York. For three hours, they bid on everything from inscribed Langston...
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Clapton's Guitars and Amps Sell at Auction for High Price Tags
Wednesday afternoon, a selection of amps, guitars and other memorabilia from rock star Eric Clapton's personal collection were auctioned off at Bonhams in Manhattan to a room chock-full of fans of the...
View ArticleDo I Hear $40 Million for the Warhol?
For buyers of 19th, 20th and 21st century art, spring means one thing: auctions.The New York branches of Sotheby's and Christie's hold their star-studded Impressionist and Modern sales this week,...
View ArticleStar Music Manuscript Collection Faces Sale -- and Possible Departure From...
The Lehman Collection at the Morgan Library, a deposit of nearly 200 original music manuscripts that contains some of the greatest classical works of the 20th Century, is up for sale.Owner Robert Owen...
View ArticleBilly the Kid Photo Sells for $2.3 Million
The only authenticated photograph of the infamous Billy the Kid was auctioned off this weekend in Denver. The auction house expected the photo to sell for somewhere in the ballpark of $300,000 tp...
View ArticleFall Impressionist and Modern Art Auctions Sales Set Records, But Some Pieces...
The auction houses were full, paddles were at the ready and phones were manned, and in the wings at Christie’s and Sotheby’s a total of over a hundred works of art waited to find new homes. The annual...
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Shepard Fairey Work to Sell at Auction to Benefit the Homeless
Tuesday night, the Coalition for the Homeless holds its 17th annual ArtWalk NY benefit. For many, the highlight of the evening will be the sale of a hand-painted canvas by controversial street artist...
View ArticleBling and Haute Couture: Christie's Kicks Off Liz Taylor Auction
A Tiziani black velvet cape Liz Taylor wore to Princess Grace of Monaco's "Scorpio Ball" and the diamond and gold wedding bands Taylor wore in both of her marriages to Richard Burton are a few of the...
View ArticleSotheby's to Sell Munch's 'The Scream' in the Spring
Sotheby's auction house announced Tuesday that one of four versions of Edvard Munch's masterpiece "The Scream" will go on the block on May 2. It estimates the work will sell for $80 million or...
View Article12 Ways to Commemorate the Titanic Centennial
There are a number of happenings in the Tri-State area that mark the Titanic centennial. Among our favorites: meals recreating White Star Line menus, plays based on ship survivor testimonials and...
View Article'The Scream' Fetches Record $119.9M at NYC Auction
One of the art world's most recognizable images - Edvard Munch's "The Scream" - sold Wednesday for a record $119,922,500 at auction in New York City.The 1895 artwork - a modern symbol of human anxiety...
View ArticleChristie's to Hold First Photojournalism Auction in Honor of Anton Hammerl
A New York auction house is getting ready for its first sale of contemporary photojournalism works.The sale, which takes place at Christie's on Tuesday, is being held in honor of the South African...
View ArticleNY Art Handlers and Sotheby's Resolve Contract
Art handlers and Sotheby's auction house in New York have resolved their contract dispute.Teamsters Local 814 announced Thursday that workers had voted to approve a new agreement that includes pay...
View ArticleNYC Movie Memorabilia Slated for Auction
A New York City memorabilia shop famous for its original pin up photos is selling its entire inventory for auction.Movie Star News had been selling copies of posters and pin-up photos by mail since...
View ArticleNew York City Opera Sets Go On Sale
Procrastinating holiday shoppers with a taste for grandeur take note: New York City Opera began the sale of its old sets this week, in advance of an online auction scheduled for mid-January.The company...
View ArticleTitanic Violin Sells for Over $1.6M at Auction
LONDON (AP) -- A violin believed to have been played on the Titanic before the doomed vessel sank was auctioned for more than 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) Saturday, a fantastic figure which one...
View ArticleMozart Manuscript, 'Star Wars' Snippet Put Up for Auction
A two-page manuscript from an early Mozart serenade is to be sold at auction on Nov. 26 at Swann Auction Galleries in New York.The sheet, which covers a portion of the sixth movement of the Serenade in...
View ArticleNew York City Opera to Auction Off Instruments, Costumes, Props
Need a mustard-colored robe, a green-velvet chair or a harpsichord? The vestiges of 70 years of operatic history will go on the block on December 12 as New York City Opera plans to auction off its...
View ArticleRare Stamp Sells For $9.5 Million at Auction
A one cent investment from more than 150 years ago just turned a major profit.On Tuesday evening, a 1856 British Guiana One-Cent Magenta stamp crossed Sotheby's auction block and sold for a...
View ArticleArtists Want a Cut From Auction Mega-Sales
Frank Stella has been called the father of minimalism. In the 1960s when he first started coming to people’s attention, his work could sell for a few thousands dollars.Now, some of those same works can...
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Get Your Gargoyle On at Tribeca Auction
If you've ever longed for an original terracotta lioness head, or a pair of wood carved griffins from 1890, this could be your chance to get them.Thousands of original artifacts collected over nearly a...
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Drake Makes a Mixtape for Sotheby’s
Just months after dropping his own mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, Drake was asked to make a more traditional collection of music for the auction house Sotheby’s. In "I Like It Like...
View ArticleMozart's 'I Want My Music Back' Letter Fetches $217,000 in Auction
A letter by Mozart seeking to reclaim some scores from a friend fetched $217,000 at an auction in Boston on Thursday.The letter, signed by the composer, was written to Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, a...
View ArticleRock Paper Scissors, Snap #605 - Simpatico
When the two greatest auction houses in the world - Christies and Sothebys -- vied for the privilege of auctioning off $20 million worth of art in 2004, little did they know that they would be forced...
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6 Musical Instruments That Set Auction Records
This past weekend, Jean Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (“Skull”), sold at auction for $110.5 million. That makes Basquiat the creator of the most expensive work sold by a U.S. artist. If you are like me,...
View ArticleGlenn Gould’s 1981 ‘Goldberg’ Manuscript Auctioned for 125K
For at least one Glenn Gould lover, Christmas came a few weeks early this year. An anonymous buyer paid $125,000 — a record for a Gould manuscript — for the pianist’s annotated score from the 1981...
View Article'Rabbit' Runs Away With Record Sales Price
A three-foot tall, shiny, stainless steel rabbit has set the art world buzzing after it sold for $91.1 million at Christie's this month. "Rabbit" by Jeff Koons now holds the record for the highest...
View ArticleCha-ching!
Twenty months since the start of the pandemic, economic recovery has been uneven at best. This week, On the Media takes a look at one sector that’s been booming: cryptocurrency and, in particular,...
View Article“So Steady And So True:” A Staten Island Ferry Captain Remembers The John F....
A piece of New York City transit history has been sold at auction: the iconic Staten Island ferry named for John F. Kennedy. It spent decades shuttling countless people back and forth across New York...
View ArticleRe-Gifts to the City
Under New York City rules, public servants cannot accept gifts from people or entities doing business with the city. But when you hold an office like Mayor, people tend to want to give you things. What...
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