auction

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Chinese Vase Sells for 4K Times Its Estimated Value
Auction House Said
Vase Was Ordinary.
Bidders Disagreed
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Oct 8, 2022 4:30 PM CDT

Auction House Said Vase Was Ordinary. Bidders Disagreed

Valued at $2K, it went for almost 4K times that amount

(Newser) - A French auction house says it ended up with not just a Chinese vase , but also a "crazy story." A Parisian collector purchased the vase at least 30 years ago, reports CNN , and her granddaughter arranged to have the auctioneer Osenat sell it. The seller never laid eyes...

An Unwanted and Inhospitable Lighthouse Finally Sells

Hooper Island Lighthouse went for way more than the starting price

(Newser) - The federal government has sold off a rather inhospitable lighthouse in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay for a six-figure sum after a bidding war at auction. The Hooper Island Lighthouse, located west of Middle Hooper Island in Maryland's Dorchester County, at first drew little interest, reported the Washington ...

Couple Finds Out Home Is 'One Hell of a Piggy Bank'

UK pair discovered 18th-century gold coins worth up to $290K under their kitchen floor

(Newser) - Home renovations can be nerve-wracking: You never know what you're going to unearth underneath the old plaster and wood as you make way for the new. For a UK couple, their discovery was more shocking than most: a container filled with 18th-century coins that could end up selling at...

Mantle Card Auctions for Record $12.6M
Mint Mantle
Card Auction
Hits Record
Aug 28, 2022 10:10 AM CDT

Mint Mantle Card Auction Hits Record

New Jersey seller who paid $50K in 1991 collects $12.6M

(Newser) - A mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for $12.6 million Sunday, blasting into the record books as the most ever paid for sports memorabilia in a market that has grown exponentially more lucrative in recent years. The rare Mantle card eclipsed the record just posted a few months...

Mother of Kids Found Dead in Suitcases Likely in South Korea

Authorities have not identified woman

(Newser) - Update: Authorities believe a South Korean woman may be the mother of the two children whose bodies were found in two suitcases recently purchased at a New Zealand auction. The unidentified woman is in her 40s, was born in South Korea, and moved to New Zealand where she became a...

Someone Really, Really Wants Harry's Underwear

Auction of skivvies said to be from 2012 Vegas romp has already brought in bid of $250K

(Newser) - Prince Harry probably never wants to hear again about his wild night in Vegas 10 years ago, when he got fully naked during a round of strip billiards in his VIP suite, with photos circulating to prove it. The UK royal may have to relive that night for another month...

Lennon's Angry Letter to McCartney Up for Sale

'You know damn well we can't just sign a bit of paper'

(Newser) - An angry note John Lennon penned to Paul McCartney after the breakup of the Beatles has resurfaced on the auction block. Lennon sent one copy of the three-page typed letter dated Nov. 24, 1971, to McCartney and another to Richard Williams, the editor of British music magazine Melody Maker, urging...

Criticism Surrounds Sale of Hitler's Watch

An anonymous bidder paid $1.1M for it on Thursday

(Newser) - It turns out there were two controversial auctions won by anonymous bidders on Thursday. The BBC reports that a watch thought to have belonged to Adolf Hitler has sold for $1.1 million, below its $2 million to $4 million estimate. Alexander Historical Auctions in Maryland described the gold Andreas...

Paleontologist Calls Gorgosaurus Sale a 'Disaster'

Rare skeleton was sold for $6.1M

(Newser) - A rare and exquisite Gorgosaurus skeleton sold for $6.1 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York City Thursday—but since the anonymous buyer apparently wasn't a museum or an unusually wealthy paleontologist, scientists say they find the sale concerning. Gorgosaurus was a distant—and faster—relative...

Someone Just Paid $16K for This 'Vampire-Slaying Kit'

Wooden box from late 1800s contained all kinds of repellents against the blood-sucking undead

(Newser) - Someone apparently didn't think the crucifixes and holy water they had lying around were enough to contend with the undead—and so last week they paid nearly $16,000 for a late-1800s "vampire-slaying kit" up for sale at a UK auction house, reports Live Science . The sturdy wooden...

Now&#39;s Your Chance to Own a Dinosaur
Now's Your Chance
to Own a Dinosaur
Jul 5, 2022 11:53 AM CDT

Now's Your Chance to Own a Dinosaur

Sotheby's is auctioning a Gorgosaurus skeleton, but you'll need at least $5M

(Newser) - The fossilized skeleton of a T. rex relative that roamed the earth about 76 million years ago will be auctioned in New York this month, per the AP . The Gorgosaurus skeleton will highlight Sotheby's natural history auction on July 28, the auction house says. The Gorgosaurus was an apex...

NASA Requests Return of Its Dead Roaches

Agency stops auction sale of experiment items, including moon dust collected in 1969

(Newser) - Unwilling to let another historic item pass out of its hands , NASA has intervened in the auction of some dead cockroaches. As the AP reports, Boston-based RR Auction was offering 40 milligrams of moon dust collected during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that had been fed to and then extracted...

Good Luck Burning This $130K Copy of The Handmaid's Tale

Fire-resistant book is a form of protest against recent book bans

(Newser) - Margaret Atwood took a flamethrower to a copy of her bestseller The Handmaid's Tale to show that "powerful words can never be extinguished." Note it was a one-of-a-kind "unburnable" copy that just sold at a Sotheby's auction for $130,000. Publisher Penguin Random House created...

Got $250K? A Rare Harry Potter Book Beckons

Christie's is selling first edition of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' in London

(Newser) - A rare first edition of the very first book in JK Rowling's Harry Potter series is about to go on the auction block. Reuters reports that Christie's of London will be holding a private sale this month for the copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone,...

Drama Swirls Around Who Owns This Dorothy Dress

Catholic University was about to sell it, until a judge stepped in

(Newser) - The story of one of Dorothy's dresses from the Wizard of Oz has nearly as many twists and turns as the film itself. The blue-and-white checked gingham dress—said to be one of only two that still have the underlying blouse with it—was found last year in a...

Picasso Painted His Lover as a Sea Creature. Now, a Big Sale

The painting fetched $67.5M

(Newser) - Being depicted as a tentacled sea creature by your lover may not sound like the highest compliment. But when that lover is Pablo Picasso, well ... it's a whole other story. Femme nue Couchée, a painting that imagines Marie-Thérèse Walter as a five-limbed sea creature, sold for...

Remains of 'Hector' Just Sold for Really Big Bucks

Skeleton of dino that inspired velociraptors in 'Jurassic Park' was bought for $12.4M at auction

(Newser) - "Hector" has been sold. The skeleton of the Deinonychus antirrhopus dinosaur species, said to be the inspiration for the velociraptors in 1993's Jurassic Park, was auctioned off by Christie's on Thursday to an undisclosed buyer for $12.4 million, more than double the price the auction house...

300-Year-Old Wizard of Oz Violin Likely to Set Record

'Da Vinci' Stradivarius formerly owned by Toscha Seidel expected to fetch up to $20M at auction

(Newser) - An old violin, thought to be heard on the Oscar-winning score of The Wizard of Oz, might just become the most expensive Stradivarius ever sold at auction. The rare violin formerly owned by Toscha Seidel, "widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century," will hit...

Truly Horrifying Prop From The Shining Fetches 6 Figures

Axe used by Jack Nicholson auctioned for $175K

(Newser) - Update: Heeeere's $175,000. That's how much an anonymous buyer paid at auction for the axe used by Jack Nicholson in The Shining. The new owner was identified only as a businessman who is, not surprisingly, a fan of the Stanley Kubrick movie, reports TMZ . The winner outbid...

At Auction: Moon Dust Collected by Neil Armstrong

It'll be quite a payday for Illinois collector Nancy Lee Carlson

(Newser) - A rare piece—or rather pieces—of space history are about to go to the highest bidder. Five samples of moon dust collected by Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission will be sold at a Bonhams auction on Wednesday. Thought...

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