The most expensive painting sold at auction is Salvator Mundi by Leonardi da Vinci, which sold for $450,312,500 (£342,148,000; €381,431,000), including buyer’s premium, at an auction held by Christie’s in New York, USA, on 11 November 2017.
The painting was included in Christie’s sale of “Postwar and Contemporary Art” at Rockefeller Center in New York, in the hope that it would appeal to the biggest art collectors. The seller, Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, bought the painting in 2013 for approximately £77.3 million ($127.5 million; €92.6 million). The buyer, who bid by telephone, chose to remain anonymous. Over 1,000 art collectors, advisors, dealers and journalists were present at the auction, with thousand more tuned in via a live stream.
Some specialists believe that Leonardo originally painted the work for the French Royal family. The painting went missing from 1763 for over 150 years. Passing through the possession of several collectors over the centuries, the work was rediscovered in a small, regional auction in the United Sates in 2005. Prior to that, it was sold in 1958 at Sotheby’s for £45 ($59), having been dismissed as a copy.
Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) was on show in an exhibition of Leonardo’s surviving paintings at the National Gallery, London, in 2011-12, confirming its acceptance as a fully autograph work by Leonardo da Vinci. However, there still remains speculation over the painting’s origins, some specialists attributing the work as one of da Vinci’s apprentices.
Nevertheless, the painting was presented as one of the greatest artistic discoveries of the 20th century.
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History of Auctioneering
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A limited edition Swatch watch – one of only 140 made – designed in 1984 by French artist Christian Chapiron (known as Kiki Picasso) sold at auction at Sotheby’s, Milan, Italy in 1989 for $45,000 (£27,450).
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The earliest official online game auction site was Station Exchange. Launched by SOE in June 2005, it provided a legitimate means for players to buy and sell characters, items and money to other players, for real money, woth SOE making a cut from the profits. As well as raising revenue for the company, Station Exchange provides players with a safe way of performing transactions, without having to use third party websites.
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A Hong Kong based investor paid US$2.1 million (?1.3 million) on 28 June 2008 for a lunch date with Warren Buffett, the world’s richest man. Zhao Danyang (Hong Kong) enjoyed a meal for himself and seven friends accopmanied by Mr. Buffett at Smith & Wollensky’s steakhouse in New York.
All proceeds from the auction went to a charity which helps the poor and homeless in San Francisco.
Warren Buffett is an American investor and the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
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The most expensive music single sold at auction is a rare seven-inch copy of unreleased 1965 single Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) by Frank Wilson (USA). It sold for £25,742 ($39,294) to a buyer who wished to remain anonymous. Seller Kenny Burrell, a DJ and record collector stated that he was selling his copy in order to gain credibility as a record expert.
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Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), painted by British artist David Hockney (b. 9 July 1937) in 1972, sold for $90,312,500 (£69,547,900; €79,919,300) – including buyer’s premium – at Christie’s auction house in New York City, USA, on 15 November 2018. This makes the acrylic-on-canvas the most expensive painting by a living artist sold at auction to date.
The dimensions of the painting are 213.5 x 305 cm (84 x 120 in).
Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) takes this record from Jeff Koons’s Balloon Dog (Orange) – a 3.6-metre (12-foot-high, orange-tinted, stainless-steel sculpture resembling a dog made from balloons that sold at Christie’s in New York City, USA, on 12 November 2013 for $58.4 million (£36.49 million; €43.6 million).
Hockney first created a painting based on this composition in 1971, but unhappy with the results, he destroyed it. The current work was a second attempt, created in April 1972 in just a few weeks (working for up to 18 hours a day) for an exhibition at the André Emmerich Gallery in New York City, USA.
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The most expensive book illustration sold at auction is E.H. Shepard’s “Original Map of the Hundred Acre Wood”, which sold for £430,000 ($571,369; €485,860), including premium, auctioned by Sotheby’s in London, UK, on 10 July 2018.
Ernest Howard Shepard is a renowned English artist, best known for his illustrations in The Wind and the Willows and Winnie-the-Pooh.
The “Original Map of the Hundred Acre Wood” illustration was created for Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh woodland setting. The illustration is supposed to be the work of the character Christopher Robin and includes locations on the map purposely misspelled (“Big Stones and Rox” and “Nice For Piknicks”). The map is signed off by Christopher with “Drawn by me and Mr Shepard helpd”.
The illustration has remained in a private collection for the past five decades.
The record title was previously, held by E.H. Shepard’s illustration “For A Long Time They Looked At The River Beneath Them…”, a drawing of Winnie-the-Pooh and Christopher Robin playing Poohsticks, which sold for £314,500 ($492,727; €398,031).
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Mecum Auctions, Inc. is an American auction company specializing in collector cars and motorcycles. It was founded by Dana Mecum in 1988, and was originally based in Marengo, Illinois. Since 2011, it has been headquartered in Walworth, Wisconsin. The company hosts various auction events across the United States. Television coverage began in 2008, contributing to the popularity of the events.
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Mecum Auctions, Inc. is an American auction company specializing in collector cars and motorcycles. Since 2011, it has been headquartered in Walworth, Wisconsin. The company hosts various auction events across the United States. Television coverage began in 2008, contributing to the popularity of the events.
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Napoleon Bonaparte’s real tooth was auctioned off in 2011. It was taken out while he was in exile on St. Helena, turning it into a one-of-a-kind historical artifact. The tooth sold for an impressive £13,000, bought by a dentist eager to add a piece of the French emperor’s dental legacy to his collection.
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