Sotheby's – News Stories About Sotheby's - Page 7

Dec 26, 2007 6:01 AM CST

Art Market Sails Over Turmoil

Weak dollar, overseas buyers help keep prices high

(Newser) - US financial markets were in chaos this year, but the art market certainly wasn't. The expanding ranks of the super-rich, the weak dollar, and emerging connoisseurs from Russia, China, India, and the Middle East kept auction houses in fine form, the AP reports, with postwar and contemporary works—including a...

Magna Carta Sells for $21.3M

Dec 19, 2007 9:00 AM CST

Magna Carta Sells for $21.3M

Purchaser says he'll lend it to National Archives

(Newser) - A 1297 copy of the Magna Carta, the founding document of constitutional law, sold at auction for $21.3 million last night. Ross Perot's foundation put the document up for sale at Sotheby's in New York, where it was bought by David Rubenstein, a private equity magnate who served in...

JK Rowling Book Sells for $4M

Dec 13, 2007 12:15 PM CST

JK Rowling Book Sells for $4M

Only 7 copies of the Tales of Beedle the Bard exist

(Newser) - Sotheby’s figured The Tales of Beedle the Bard would fetch about $100,000 at auction—in retrospect, about 40 times too low. The book, a one-of-a-kind piece of the Harry Potter canon hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling herself, fetched $3.98 million for charity today, Reuters reports. “...

Anonymous Painting Is by Caravaggio

Dec 12, 2007 12:37 PM CST

Anonymous Painting Is by Caravaggio

'Copy' of Card Sharps turns out to be earlier version worth $100M

(Newser) - A British art historian who bought a misattributed painting at auction last year has demonstrated it is the work of Caravaggio. The Telegraph reports that Sotheby's sold what it thought was a copy of The Card Sharps, one of Caravaggio's most famous works that currently hangs at the Kimbell Museum...

Lion Sculpture Fetches Record Price at Auction

Dec 6, 2007 1:23 PM CST

Lion Sculpture Fetches Record Price at Auction

3¼-inch Guennol Lioness goes for $57M, nearly double last mark

(Newser) - A limestone sculpture of a lioness standing at only 3¼ inches sold at auction in New York yesterday for $57 million, smashing the record price for a sculpture, the BBC reports. The Guennol Lioness, believed to have been carved 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Iran), topped...

Mama Mia! 400-Year-Old Table Found
in Pizzeria

Nov 29, 2007 6:15 PM CST

Mama Mia! 400-Year-Old Table Found in Pizzeria

Expected to fetch $2M at upcoming auction

(Newser) - A 17th-century cabinet expected to fetch up to $2 million at auction has an unlikely provenance: its long-missing bottom half was discovered outside the bathrooms at a pizza parlor. The Telegraph reports that the cabinet, which depicts St. Peter's Square and other images of Rome, was missing the carved wooden...

Trashed Painting Fetches $1M

Nov 21, 2007 8:00 AM CST

Trashed Painting Fetches $1M

Canvas found in garbage sells for seven figures at Sotheby's

(Newser) - A painting by the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo rescued from the trash sold at Sotheby's last night for over $1 million, the BBC reports. A New York woman spotted the 1970 work in a pile of garbage awaiting pick-up on the curb in her upper West Side neighborhood. She took...

The Man Behind the Smile

Nov 14, 2007 5:38 PM CST

The Man Behind the Smile

Chinese artist takes New York with his signature troubling grin

(Newser) - It's contemporary Chinese art's most indelible image—the smile so huge it becomes false, accusatory—and it belongs to Yue Minjun, the artist who uses the grinning self-portraits, often many of them, in his paintings. The New York Times chats with Yue, who is enjoying his first US show in...

Art Market Defies Crash Fears With Record Sale

Nov 14, 2007 6:21 AM CST

Art Market Defies Crash Fears With Record Sale

Christie's contemporary evening shatters 16 records

(Newser) - So much for a correction: at last night's sale of modern and contemporary art at Christie's in New York, 16 artists achieved record prices and 61 out of 66 lots sold. Dealers were in shock as collectors continued to snatch up works at astronomical prices. Even a lesser work such...

Matisse Pulls Impressive $33.6M

Nov 7, 2007 7:20 AM CST

Matisse Pulls Impressive $33.6M

Art world breathes easier after first night of stellar sales

(Newser) - A nervous New York art world breathed a sigh of relief on the first night of the fall auctions yesterday when a Matisse painting fetched a whopping $33.6 million, far above its high estimate. Collectors and dealers are watching November's sales at Sotheby's and Christie's with anxiety, reports the...

New JK Rowling Book Headed to Auction Block

Nov 1, 2007 4:26 PM CDT

New JK Rowling Book Headed to Auction Block

Handwritten volume one of just seven from Harry Potter author

(Newser) - JK Rowling is about to redefine the meaning of "limited edition," publishing only 7 handwritten and hand-illustrated copies of her new book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the Daily Telegraph reports. Six copies of the fairy tale collection by the Harry Potter author will go to friends;...

Chinese Art Booms at London Sales

Oct 16, 2007 9:40 AM CDT

Chinese Art Booms at London Sales

But prices for Western art shaky as buyers get credit-crisis jitters

(Newser) - Could turmoil in the financial world trigger an art market crash? That was the question on everyone's mind in London over the weekend during the Frieze Art Fair and the first major sales at Christie's and Sotheby's since the credit crisis. Though the fairs and auctions had all the energy...

$7.9M Sale Smashes Record

Oct 8, 2007 7:53 PM CDT

$7.9M Sale Smashes Record

Rare blue diamond commands $7.98M at auction

(Newser) - A flawless gem has sold for $7.98 million in Hong Kong and broken the old per-carat sale record, Sotheby's announced today. London's Moussaieff Jewellers snapped up the 6.04 carat diamond at $1.32 million per carat, breaking the last record of $926,000 per carat, set in 1987...

Magna Carta Up for Sale

Sep 25, 2007 4:34 PM CDT

Magna Carta Up for Sale

Document expected to command at least $20M

(Newser) - A 1297 copy of the Magna Carta owned by Ross Perot will go on the auction block in December, Sotheby's announced today. The document, one of 17 left in existence, is expected to sell for 20 million to $30 million, the Times reports. It had been on display at the...

Bonds' #756 Ball Fetches $752K

Sep 16, 2007 12:25 PM CDT

Bonds' #756 Ball Fetches $752K

Despite steroid scandal, record-breaking ball sells for more than $750,000

(Newser) - Barry Bonds beat expectations again, as his record-breaking ball sold for well above industry estimates. Bonds’ 756th homerun ball netted $752,467, while the ball that helped him tie Hank Aaron’s career record sold for $186,750. Some naysayers thought Bonds’ steroid scandal and sharp personality would dampen demand,...

London Art Sales Soar

Jun 25, 2007 11:45 AM CDT

London Art Sales Soar

Bacon tops Sotheby's contemporary auctions; London shows new art-market clout

(Newser) - Francis Bacon took top honors and Damien Hirst became the highest-priced living artist—beating out Jasper Johns—at Sotheby's contemporary auctions in London last week. A 1971 Bacon self-portrait went for $43.2 million, and the Hirst pill cabinet called "Lullaby Spring" for $19.4 million. "Hirst is...

$72M Sale Shatters Warhol Record

May 17, 2007 4:33 PM CDT

$72M Sale Shatters Warhol Record

Auction madness continues as contemporary-art market sizzles

(Newser) - An Andy Warhol painting sold for $71.7 million last night at Christie's, more than quadrupling the previous record price for a work by the pop artist. The price for "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," part of Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series, more than doubled...

Rothko Fetches $73 Million

May 16, 2007 8:18 AM CDT

Rothko Fetches $73 Million

Record price for seminal modern work marks trend in art purchases

(Newser) - Sotheby’s sold a Mark Rothko painting last night for $72.84 million, a record price for a piece of art created after World War II and a signal of a new boom in the market. Seller David Rockefeller bought the 7-foot-tall "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender),"...