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Century-old ‘Wall Street’ street sign expected to fetch 80,000 at Christie’s

May 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New York, May 20(ANI): Auction house, Christie’s, is reportedly planning to sell a century-old Wall Street street sign on June 22.

According to reports, Christie’s will auction off the cobalt-blue porcelain street sign, framed in wrought iron.

It stood on the corner of Wall and Broad Streets and dates somewhere between the 1890s and the 1920s.

Christie’s estimates that the sign could sell between 60,000 and 80,000 dollars, but a serious collector might be willing to bid higher.

Wall Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York. It was the first permanent home of the New York Stock Exchange, and over time Wall Street became the name of the surrounding geographic neighborhood.

Wall Street is also shorthand for the “influential financial interests” of the American financial industry, which is centered in the New York area.

Several major U.S. stock and other exchanges remain headquartered on Wall Street and in the Financial District, including the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, NYMEX, and NYBOT. (ANI)

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MJ’s ‘Beat It’ lyrics to go under the hammer

May 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, May 19 (ANI): The handwritten lyrics to Michael Jackson”s ‘Beat It’ are to be auctioned in California next month (Jun10).

The late King of Pop gave his scribbled notes to a producer pal.

“This piece has been in private hands since being written. It”s an incredible piece from the legendary King of Pop and it”s in fine condition,” the Daily Express quoted Marc Kruskol, spokesman for auction house Profiles in History, as saying.

The lyrics by the late singer won”t be the only highlight of the memorabilia auction – the pink satin gown Marilyn Monroe donned in the Diamonds Are a Girl”s Best Friend sequence in the film ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ is sure to be the main lot. (ANI)

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Naked Kate Moss photos expected to fetch £30K at auction

May 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, May 19 (ANI): Nude black and white photographs of supermodel Kate Moss are to go under the hammer.

Over a dozen photographs were taken in 1993 in Marrakech and are likely to fetch up to 30,000 pounds when they are sold on Friday.

The pictures that show the supermodel crouching on sand come in the form of the photographer””””s ‘contact sheet’.

Photographer Albert Watson shot Moss without clothes or jewellery when she was in her late teens.

“Albert Watson is a famed photographer,” the Telegraph quoted Alexander Montague-Sparey, photography expert from Christie””””s auction house which is selling the photos, as saying.

“He is known for his work in black and white and these photographs have a golden quality to them which makes them very attractive.

“There is a contact sheet with 14 photographs and they are very large for contact sheet photos.

“There was another print from this shoot which was enlarged and sold for 50,000 pounds.

“The photographs are like looking through a keyhole into an intimate moment and they draw you in.

“There is an intimacy between the photographer and his muse. She is crouching trying to hide as much of her body as possible.

“There are those who collect Watson photographs and Kate Moss is very commercial and they are a safe investment,” he added. (ANI)

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Beatles’ 1966 ‘Jesus’ press conference tape up for grabs

May 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, May 12 (ANI): An audio recording of the Beatles from 1966, in which John Lennon is asked about his comment that the band was more popular than Jesus, is expected to sell for about 13,400 pounds at auction.

Auction house Bonhams & Butterfields said the 14 minute reel-to-reel tape recording was the only known surviving audio record of the 1966 press conference by the Fab Four at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto.

Bonhams said journalists also had lots of questions about Lennon’s controversial “Jesus” remark months earlier, and that Vietnam and the generation gap were also discussed.

The press conference was well reported at the time but there is no known television or audio record.

“We do know what they said that day. We have just never heard it,” the Telegraph quoted Margaret Barrett, director of entertainment memorabilia at Bonhams & Butterfields, as saying.

She said the tapes were made by a young photojournalist and Beatles fan who attended the press conference.

“He tried to sell them in 1966, but no-one thought they were important,” Barrett stated.

The two reels lay in a drawer for over 40 years but now carry an estimated price of 13,400 pounds to 16,750 pounds and are among the most expensive items at the June 13 auction in Los Angeles. (ANI)

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Picasso piece sets record for art sold at auction

May 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) – Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” sold for more than $106 million at Christie’s on Tuesday, setting a record for art sold at auction.

The Picasso, a 1932 work not seen publicly in 50 years, was purchased by an anonymous buyer from a world-class collection assembled by the late Los Angeles art patrons Frances and Sidney Brody.

The vibrant, large-scale depiction of Picasso’s mistress and frequent subject, Marie-Therese Walter, was the top priced work at Christie’s sale of Impressionist and modern art.

The sale netted $335.5 million for the auction house.

“Obviously we’re thrilled” with the final price of $106,482,500 including commission for the Picasso, auctioneer Christopher Burge said afterward. He added that there was “incredible bidding” across the range of 69 works on offer, of which more than 80 percent found buyers.

A record was also set for Georges Braque when “La Treille” sold for $10,162,500, or more than twice the pre-sale estimate.

Christie’s said the sale’s total was its third best, with the $224 million Brody take second only among single-owner sales to the Yves St. Laurent sale in Paris.

Nearly three-quarters of the winning bids came equally from U.S. and European bidders, while one-fourth were categorized as “other,” a designation that includes collectors from the Mideast.

Christie’s Americas Chairman Marc Porter said the sale was also marked by “an extremely heavy rate of participation from new collectors, in new economies.”

The sale, dominated by Picassos and Giacomettis, was not without its casualties, notably Edvard Munch’s “Fertility,” which was estimated around $30 million but went unsold when no one bid beyond $23 million.

But the big spending, especially for the Brody works, spoke to the willingness of deep-pocketed collectors to purchase rare works of impeccable provenance.

Three Giacometti sculptures also saw strong prices. A narrow bust, a forearm with outstretched hand and a walking cat, all bronzes from the Brody collection, fetched $55.3 million, $25.84 million and $20.8 million respectively.

The spring sales continue on Wednesday with Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist and modern art

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Picasso””s ‘Nude, Green Leaves and Bust’ fetches record $106m at Christie””s

May 5, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, May 5(ANI): Spanish artist Pablo Picasso’s painting ‘Nude, Green Leaves and Bust’ has been auctioned off at a record 106 million dollars.

The artist””s 1932 picture, which belonged to the late Los Angeles collectors Frances and Sidney Brody since the 1950s, was sold at Christie””s auction house in New York.

The winning bid, made by an anonymous telephone bidder, breaks the record held by Giacometti””s Walking Man I, which was sold for 104.3million dollars.

Another work by Picasso, Garcon a la Pipe, had previously held the record when it sold for 104.1 million dollars in 2004.

The record-breaking sale, which includes Christie””s commission, indicates the recovery of the art market from the global financial crisis.

“The Brodys bought it in the 50s. It was only exhibited once in 1961,” The BBC quoted Conor Jordan, the head of Christie””s impressionist department as saying. (ANI)

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Monroe’s ‘Diamonds are a Girl”s Best Friend’ pink gown up for grabs

May 4, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 04 (ANI): The bright pink strapless dress that Marilyn Monroe wore in “Diamonds are a Girl”s Best Friend” sequence in the movie “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” is being auctioned off.

Hollywood memorabilia dealers at California auction house Profiles in History are offering the dress, which they”re calling “the most important film dress to ever come to auction” during a summer sale next month (Jun10), reports Contactmusic.

The gown is said to be the highlight of the auction, and will also feature Monroe’s test footprints and signature set in cement from outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.

Monroe”s beautiful dress is expected to fetch between 150,000 dollars and 250,000 dollars.

The auction will feature over 1,500 lots of Hollywood memorabilia. (ANI)

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Letter from Titanic passenger fetches £55K

April 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

London, April 19 (ANI): A letter from a first-class passenger on board the ill-fated Titanic has been sold for 55,000 pounds at an auction.

It fetched a record price for a piece of written correspondence from the ship.

The letter, written on three sides of stationery, was penned by Adolphe Saafeld to his ‘wifey’.

It was sold to an unidentified British museum, which has yet to formally announce its purchase.

The letter was written five days before the ship sank on 15 April, taking 1,517 people with it, and gives an insight into life on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

It was one of 350 lots of White Star Line memorabilia sold by Henry Aldridge and Son auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire.

“The content is superb. It gives a real first person perspective of what life was like on-board, through the eyes of a first-class passenger, right down to the food, the size of the cabin and the decoration,” the Telegraph quoted Andrew Aldridge from the auction house as saying.

He said it was the best letter of its kind, due to its depth of detail.

Another star of the sale was a set of keys belonging to an officer transferred from the Titanic at the last minute, which fetched 54,000 pounds.

A set of photographs relating to the Titanic, her passengers and crew were sold to various collectors for more than 100,000 pounds.

One picture, of Rosa Abbott, who was pulled from the water after the ship sank, fetched 35,000 poundsand was bought by a private collector. (ANI)

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Letter from Titanic passenger fetches £55K

April 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment