BOSTON - Skinner Inc. today announced the results of its March 17, 2009 Fine Jewelry sale. The auction achieved its overall high estimate, grossing $1,768,021.

A number of the top-selling lots came to Skinner from the family of William and Henry Waters, who established Baltimore's Waters Art Museum. The star of the show was a stunning Renaissance Revival long chain (lot 530) that sold for $402,000.  It was estimated at $75,000-$125,000.

Another eye-catching lot, an archaeological Revival gold and glass bead fringe necklace, circa 1880, sold for $67,545.50.
 
Additional highlights included an Art Deco diamond, onyx, jadeite and coral brooch by Boucheron Paris (lot 514), which sold for $189,600.00, and a Renaissance Revival enamel, sapphire and diamond brooch (lot 529) that achieved $71,100.

FAIRFIELD, Maine (AP) - A two-day auction of high-end firearms and memorabilia generated sales totaling nearly $11.4 million.

About 100 bidders and spectators showed up Tuesday, March 17, for the final day of the sale at the James D. Julia Inc. auction house in Fairfield.

A highlight was the sale of 40 lots from the Colt firearms collection of Pennsylvania businessman Joseph A. Murphy.

Julia said the collection is the finest, gun for gun, ever to come to auction. Two other auctions that will include rare pieces from Murphy's collection are scheduled for October 2009 and March 2010.
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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-03-18-09 1410EDT

VINELAND, N.J. - The March 19-21 no-reserve sale premiering the Donald Kaufman Antique Toy Collection rang the register at more than $4.2 million and set a new house record for its producer, Bertoia Auctions. The high-energy event, which was the opener for an ongoing series of sales to disperse the massive Kaufman collection, reminded many of the great auctions of 20 years ago. The three-day gross slightly surpassed Bertoia's previous house record - also in the range of $4.2 million - which had been set in 1998 when the New Jersey company auctioned the Stan Sax bank collection.

Toy industry veterans at the red-carpet preview and sale concurred that the affair was the "best-attended toy auction ever." Bidders were quick to reserve seats in the main saleroom, which overflowed into the adjacent gallery. Additional competitors worldwide kept the phone bank and Internet console buzzing with bids. Online bidders through LiveAuctioneers.com added more than $341,000 to the final tally.

The sale's grand-prize winner was a rare circa-1909 Marklin Fidelitas clown caravan measuring 37½ inches long. A stunning hand-painted toy made by prewar Germany's premier toy manufacturer, it had been estimated at $30,000-$40,000 but well exceeded expectations with a selling price of $103,500 (inclusive of 15 percent buyer's premium). The buyer was a private collector from Europe.

NEW ORLEANS - The Spanish Custom House, built in 1784 in New Orleans' historic Bayou St. John neighborhood, sold at Neal Auction Company's Feb. 10, 2009 absolute auction for $1,045,000. Neal Auction, whose services include fine art auctions, appraisals and marketing of tangible and real assets, was contracted by the sellers last November to handle the sale. 

The auction took place on site, where registered bidders and their guests were encouraged to tour the home one last time while listening to live music, enjoying French King Cake and sipping mimosas. The 36 bidders, who were required to submit $50,000 in certified funds before participating in the auction, came from all over the region, including Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, and from as far away as Arizona, Georgia, Illinois, New Hampshire, and New York. 

One bidder, an architect who flew in from Atlanta, commented via email after the sale that Neal Auction "made me feel so welcome and comfortable. The whole experience was quiet enjoyable! Thanks for everything."

With 36 competing bidders, the Spanish Custom House sold within 20 minutes to a gentleman from Houma, La., for $1,045,000. 

The event's presiding auctioneer, Neal Auction Company's president and co-founder Neal Alford, started the bidding at $100,000 and quickly proceeded upward from there. Competition was widespread throughout the room up to $750,000. At $750,000, only three contenders for the historic structure remained active; at $800,000, only two. From $800,000 to the final hammer price of $950,000, bidding was tense, with only two bidders left to compete for the property. To much applause, the auction closed at $950,000, with the gentleman from Houma being declared the winning bidder. A 10% buyer's premium is added to the final bid price to arrive at the total contract sale price of $1.045 million.

PARIS (ACNI) - The art world will still be talking about Christie's Feb. 23-25 auction of the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collection long after its luxe contents have settled into private and institutional collections the world over. There has never been an auction like it before, and it's likely that the many records set over the three-day period will be secure for years - maybe decades - to come.

After the gold dust had settled in the incomparably beautiful Grand Palais - site of the three-day auction that attracted an international frenzy of interest - the cumulative auction tally was announced: $483.8 million.

A substantial percentage of the proceeds garnered by the collection, which was built over many years by the late couturier Yves Saint Laurent (1936-2008) and his longtime partner Pierre Bergé, will benefit the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and bankroll a new foundation for research into a cure for AIDS. Other proceeds will be set aside for purposes of commemorating the House of Yves Saint Laurent, an iconic brand since 1962.

The sale - co-produced by Christie's Paris and Pierre Bergé & Associates - realized the highest total ever for an auction held in Europe, with a long list of additional milestones achieved:

• World record for the most valuable private collection sold at auction

• World record for the most valuable private Impressionist and Modern art collection sold at auction

• World auction record for a silver sale

• World record for a collection of 20th-century decorative arts

• World Record for any work of 20th-century decorative art at auction

CINCINNATI - With a packed auction house and phone banks at capacity, the economic recession seemed far from everyone's mind at Cowan's Auctions Winter Fine and Decorative Art Sale held on Feb. 7, 2009. More than 1,050 registered bidders from 22 countries vied to take home one or more of the 667 lots offered at the auction.

Online bidders through LiveAuctioneers had a significant impact, as well. The 488 approved online bidders prevailed on 78 of the sale's lots, including a woven tapestry of a sheep-shearing scene, which was purchased via the Internet for $6,600 against a presale estimate of $1,000-$1,500.

Decorative Arts Director Diane Wachs was elated with the outcome. "The auction did very well. We had the biggest in-house audience we've ever had at Cowan's." Wachs described the bidding as "aggressive," both from retail buyers and dealers.

The highest selling item of the sale was the painting titled Robbing The Eagle's Nest, by Robert Scott Duncanson (1823-1872). The large oil on canvas sold for $105,750 (all prices quoted are inclusive of 17.5 percent buyer's premium), more than doubling its high estimate of $50,000. The painting was originally acquired directly from the artist, and descended from the buyer to the present owner.

A bust of Minnehaha by Edmonia Lewis sold well above its estimated price and grossed $52,875. Lewis was the first African-American and Native-American woman to gain international recognition as a sculptor. In October 2007, Cowan's set an auction sales record with the sale of another Lewis sculpture, The Bride of Spring, for $138,000.

Minnehaha is a character in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), the single best-selling poem in the English language of the entire 19th century. To date there are five known signed and dated originals of Lewis's Minnehaha bust housed in public and private collections. This previously unknown example adds one more to that number.

PARIS - At the inaugural session Monday of the sale of the Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, 59 works of Impressionist and Modern art sold for $266 million, a record for the most valuable auction ever conducted in Europe.

More than 1,200 collectors and dealers from around the world attended the sale, which is being offered by Christie's in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers.

The top lot of the evening was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911, by Henri Matisse, which sold for $46.4 million, the highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction. In addition to Matisse, artists achieving world records were Brancusi, Mondrian, De Chirico, Duchamp, Klee and Ensor.

Eight works of art sold for more than over $6.4 million and 25 works sold for more than $1 million. Seventy percent of the lots went to European buyers, 30 percent to Americans.

"Collectors, gathered in the largest saleroom that Christie's has ever seated, responded to the opportunity of a lifetime to buy into a collection carefully assembled over almost five decades," said Thomas Seydoux, Christie's international head of Impressionist and Modern Art. "This historical sale demonstrated the timeless appeal of Impressionist and Modern art, this long-established and highly valued category."

Additional highlights of the sale included Le Danseur, 1937-38, by Matisse. Painted in the artist's 70th year, it is one of a series of experimental collages and marked the first time he was carving directly into color. It sold for $8.7 million. His Nu au bord de la mer, 1909, sold for $10.6 million.

PHOENIX, Ariz. - On Feb. 7-8 the Phoenix Convention Center became the site for an event unlike any in the world - the 19th annual High Noon Western Americana Show and Auction. Those passionate about the American West shopped from more than 150 exhibitors whose offerings spanned 300 years of history from the finest leatherwork, fine art, jewelry, clothing and cowboy and Western accoutrement. Sales were reported as higher than expected, which pleased many of the exhibitors and a sense of esprit de corps permeated the weekend. Others were just happy to see old friends and buy or trade for something special.

On Saturday evening, more than 700 bidders were ready in the saleroom with more registered online, by phone and absentee to bid on the 350-plus lots offered in the  High Noon Western Americana Auction. At the end of the evening auction sales totaled more than $1.4 million. In these trying economic times, the auction revealed that "people are still spending money," said Linda Kohn, co-owner of High Noon. "Money was flowing, though perhaps not pouring, and there were still some showstoppers at the auction." All prices reflect a 15 percent buyer's premium.