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Auctions

Digital artist FEWOCiOUS auctions five new unique NFT works of art at Christie's in 2021, during the auction house's most successful year for digital art.

Christie’s Helped Drive the Art World’s NFT Craze. Now, the Auction House Is Shutting Down Its Digital Art Division

Once a booming sector, the nonfungible token art market has been contracting for years

The partial dire wolf skull was found in Iowa.

A Partial Dire Wolf Skull Is Headed to Auction This Month—and It Could Sell for $30,000

Collectors have a rare opportunity to bid on the remains of the fearsome creature, a large canid that went extinct around the end of the last ice age

The bronze, curving panel is meant to resemble a sheet of paper coming out of a printer.

Nobody Has Been Able to Solve the CIA’s Famous ‘Kryptos’ Sculpture. Soon, the Solution Will Be Sold to the Highest Bidder

Three of the four messages carved into the sculpture have been deciphered, but the final puzzle has left amateur sleuths stumped. In November, the solution could fetch up to $500,000 at auction

These custom copper stools from Price Tower were sold in 2024 and later purchased by the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy.

Custom Furnishings From Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Skyscraper Have Been Preserved for Posterity

The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy hopes to return the 11 artifacts to the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Auctioneum book specialist Caitlin Riley found the volume with other unremarkable texts on a shelf.

Cool Finds

Rare First-Edition Copy of ‘The Hobbit’ Found in English Home Sells for Nearly $60,000

Experts found the volume while appraising the items in a home in Bristol, England. Only a few hundred copies are thought to survive

The letter sold at auction in April and is now on display at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver.

See Rare Letters From a Titanic Passenger, Who Called the Vessel a ‘Fine Ship’ Days Before It Sank

Archibald Gracie’s letter, which recently sold at auction, is part of a new exhibition at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver

Vecchio Sultano, Salvador Dalí, 1966

Cool Finds

A Man Bought This Colorful Illustration of a Sultan for £150. It Turned Out to Be a Salvador Dalí Original That Could Sell for $40,000

An art dealer attending a house clearance sale spotted the Surrealist’s signature in the corner of the work, which depicts a scene from “One Thousand and One Nights”

Measuring just 3.5 inches long, the grasshopper is carved from ivory and wood.

3,400-Year-Old Grasshopper Artifact That May Have Been Stolen From King Tut’s Tomb Sells at Auction for More Than $450,000

While the artifact’s provenance is unclear, many experts think the archaeologist Howard Carter took the item for himself after excavating the pharaoh’s tomb in 1922

Darth Vader's lightsaber, used in the final two films of the franchise's original trilogy, will go up for auction in September.

Darth Vader’s Lightsaber From the ‘Star Wars’ Original Trilogy Is Heading to Auction for the First Time Ever

The iconic prop, which is expected to fetch up to $3 million, will be sold in September alongside other pieces of movie memorabilia

The sled is central to the plot of Citizen Kane.

One of the Rosebud Sleds From ‘Citizen Kane’ Just Became the Second Most Expensive Piece of Movie Memorabilia Ever Sold

The iconic prop, which went for $14.75 million at auction, is one of several sleds used in the production of Orson Welles’ 1941 classic

Discovered in Niger in 2023, NWA 16788 weighs 54 pounds.

The Largest Martian Meteorite in the World Is Heading to Auction and Could Sell for $4 Million

Discovered in Niger in 2023, the rare chunk weighs 54 pounds and represents more than 6 percent of all Mars material on Earth

Griffin spent $18 million for the two documents.

A Rare Copy of the 13th Amendment Signed by Abraham Lincoln Sells for a Record $13.7 Million

Kenneth Griffin, the billionaire art collector and hedge fund founder, purchased the document that abolished slavery, as well as a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation

Napoleon may have gifted this bicorne hat to the loyal General Mouton.

Divorce Papers and Sauce-Stained Sleeves Reveal the Personal Side of Napoleon’s Rise and Fall

More than 100 objects connected to the French emperor just sold at auction. The collection sheds light on the man and the myth in stunningly intimate detail

Pigeon (1949) could fetch up to $61,000 at auction.

These Never-Before-Seen Ceramics Show How Picasso Mastered New Art Forms

The artist’s ceramic pieces combined practicality with aesthetics. Now, seven of his hand-painted dishes are heading to the auction block

Titled The Despair, the sculpture depicts a woman holding her leg.

Cool Finds

This Stunning Sculpture Was Sitting on a Family’s Piano. It Turned Out to Be an Original Rodin

Titled “The Despair,” the rare artwork just sold at auction for $1 million. For many years, its owners had assumed it was merely a copy

The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol, J.M.W. Turner, 1792

Cool Finds

This Long-Lost Landscape Painted by a Teenage J.M.W. Turner Was Found Hiding in Plain Sight

Showcasing the Romantic artist’s early innovations with oil paint, “The Rising Squall” could fetch up to $400,000. Before it was reattributed, it sold for just $506 at auction last year

Jane Birkin with her original prototype bag

The Original Birkin Bag Was Made After Actress Jane Birkin Spilled Her Belongings on the CEO of Hermès in 1983

The iconic accessory would become one of the most expensive handbags in fashion history. Now, the prototype is heading to the auction block, where it’s likely to fetch an exorbitant sum

The rare diamond is now the centerpiece of a ring by Joel Arthur Rosenthal, a renowned jewelry designer better known by his initials, JAR.

Smuggled Out of France During a Bloody Revolution, Marie Antoinette’s Shimmering Pink Diamond Is Heading to Auction

The 10.38-carat gemstone, which carries an estimate of $3 million to $5 million, was owned by generations of European royalty

David Lynch at his Los Angeles office in 1984

You Can Buy David Lynch’s Coffee Makers, Behind-the-Scenes Photographs and Early Drafts of Film Scripts

Nearly 450 objects are heading to auction this month. The collection reveals the “Twin Peaks” director’s restless creativity across many decades and art forms

View of Olinda, Brazil, with Ruins of the Jesuit Church, Frans Post, 1666

Cool Finds

This 17th-Century Dutch Painting Was Rescued From a Dusty Barn Attic in Connecticut. It Just Sold for More Than $7 Million

Painted in 1666, “View of Olinda, Brazil, With Ruins of the Jesuit Church” is a masterpiece by Frans Post, one of the first European-trained artists to depict the landscapes of Dutch Brazil

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