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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In 2001 Bonhams & Brooks merged with Phillips Son & Neale to form a new UK company trading as Bonhams. Phillips Son & Neale had been based in 101 New Bond Street, which subsequently became the new headquarters of Bonhams. The building consisted of seven different freeholds and had been described as “a Dickensian rabbit warren”. The first of the sites to be acquired was Blenstock House, an Art Deco building at the junction of Blenheim Street and Woodstock Street, eventually acquiring the complete building in 1974.
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In 2002 Bonhams purchased Butterfields, a leading auction house on the West Coast founded in 1865. Bonhams changed Butterfields’ name to Bonhams & Butterfields, and Malcolm Barber, formerly of Brooks, became the chief executive officer of the American subsidiary. Bonhams remained the company’s brand name outside of the United States.
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in March 2022, Bonhams acquired the US auction house Skinner Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The new company is called Bonhams Skinner.
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In March 2022, Bonhams acquired the Danish auction house, Bruun Rasmussen for an undisclosed sum.
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Warlow v Harrison (1859) is an English contract law case that talks about the liability of an auctioneer when he fails to sell the auctioned property to the highest bona fide bidder in an auction without reserve. The defendant, an auctioneer, offered a horse for sale at a public auction with no reserve. The plaintiff attended the auction and placed a bid of 60 guineas. The horse’s owner placed a bid of 61 guineas. The plaintiff declined to make any further bids, and the defendant (who appears to have been unaware that the bidder was the owner) put down the hammer to sell the horse to the owner for 61 guineas. The plaintiff asserted that the horse belonged to him because he was the highest bona fide (true) bidder at an unreserved auction. The plaintiff claimed in his pleadings that the defendant served as his agent to carry out this contract.
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“Est-Ouest” means “East” and “West” in French. Est-Ouest Auctions, the first international and oldest Japan-based international auction house founded in 1984, plays an important role in Auction development by holding many different auctions in both Japan and overseas. We aim at being an auction house that brings our client the arts from both Oriental and Western to have different cultural experience by having 5-6 auctions per annum.
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- Total Eren: 75 MW at €44.88/MWh
- Guris: 74.88 MW at €74/MWh
- Verbund: 72.6 MW at €74.95/MWh
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Heritage Auctions is the largest collectibles auctioneer and third largest auction house in the world, as well as the largest auction house founded in the U.S. We are also the undisputed Internet leader in our field, with more than 1.83 million online bidder-members registered on HA.com from all 195 countries. This loyal and growing community of collectors is a testament to the usefulness of our website, our reputation for professional business practices and our vast expertise in the field of art and collectibles. Established in 1976, Heritage offers a wide range of U.S. & World Coins, Rare Currency, Fine & Decorative Art, American Art, Illustration Art, Modern & Contemporary Art, Urban Art, Comic Books & Comic Art, Movie Posters, Entertainment & Music Memorabilia, Jewelry & Timepieces, Luxury Handbags, Sports Collectibles, Historical & Political Memorabilia, Rare Books & Manuscripts, Ethnographic Art, & Space Exploration Memorabilia, Civil War Memorabilia, Photographs, Nature & Science, Fine and Rare Wine, Luxury Real Estate, Pop Culture Collectibles, and more.
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Marshfield – The Wisconsin Auctioneer’s Association elected as President, O.E. Allison of Kingston; vice-president, Will Ebbe of Marshfield; secretary-treasurer, J.H. Dennhardt of Neenah, the assemblyman who fathered the law now in force prohibiting liquor being sold or given away at auctions. Neenah will be the meeting place next year.
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