International fine art auction house Bonhams lately inked a new world record for sales generation of Jaguar motor car during an auction. The 1955 Jaguar D-Type Sports Racing Car ‘XKD509′ went to an anonymous British buyer for a monstrous cost of £2,201,500 ($4.4 million). The 3.4-litre coupe model claims to be the first Jaguar D-Type that underwent production in 1955 (costing £2,500 then) and sports an original subframe, tub and 3.4-liter competition engine.

The auction was scheduled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in Chichester on behalf of the Littlewoods Football Pools family. The sales generated have overshadowed the previous record of £1,706,000 marked in 1999.
Via Telegraph/ Bonhams

Setting a new record for the category of world’s most expensive living female artist is a South African born artist Marlene Dumas. And this is made possible via her painting, popularly known as The Visitor, that generated sales of £3.1 million at a Sotheby’s auction. The painting was picked up by the New York private dealer Nancy Whyte during Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale scheduled on 1 July. The sales figure overshadowed Dumas’ preceding testimony of £1.8 million marked in February 2005.

The illustration is defined by Sotheby’s as an expressively demanding and noticeably beautiful. Spread over a canvas of 180cm x 300cm, the Visitor portrays a group of six-female sex-workers eyeing towards an illuminated door. The standing position of the women implies that they are contending for their deal while expecting the looming entrance of a punter. More than anything, Dumas work has invited criticism evoking issues like birth, death, sex, life, race, identity, motherhood and feminism.
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Two of the classic models of Jaguar’s coupe are anticipated to fetch up to £6 million in an auction. One developed in 1960, Jaguar E2A symbolizing the omitted connection between the iconic D-Type and E-Type sculpts is allocated to be sold off in California next month with an anticipation to generate sales of £3.5 million (4.44 million euro/ $7 million). And the other closer to home a two-seater sports racing D-Type would be featured on 11 July during Goodwood Festival of Speed sale in Sussex.

The latter is expected to bill £2.5 million ($3.97 mn-4.96 mn/ , 2.52 mn-3.14 mn euro).

The D-Type was in the collection of the late Nigel Moores, founder of Littlewoods, and is now owned by his son James.
Via TimesOnline

It seems the industry moguls cannot settle down at anything ordinary and hence has religiously charted out their own way to celebrate event. The case in point is Scrabble’s 60th Anniversary that got enough applause from celebrities also. The Diamond Anniversary Edition game board is hand crafted and sports bling via its gleaming 30,000 Swarovski crystals. Every radiant sparkler was scrupulously elected to bout the scrape board’s signature shades. Its display plate is signed by Jimmy Kimmel, Skeet Ulrich, Seth Green, Aisha Tyler and Daniel Kellison who were presented at the Scrabble “Under the Stars event”. If it catches your interest then free feel to install it into your entertainment corner by being the proud holder of this elite game board that demands an estimated bid of $20,000 at an auction at Clothesoffourback.

The sale proceeds would be donated to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. But if you have spare amount of dough then bring home a $100,000 diamond-encrusted chess that screams luxury.

Via MoneyCNNÂ

On 29 June, Bonhams would be auctioning off its astonishing compilation of classic bikes valued around $2 million at the Royal Air Force Museum in London. The collection details the largest single-owner collection of motorbikes ever reached the auction block, all 300 machines coming from the Professor Fritz Ehn Motorcycle Museum in Austria. The two wickedly fast and attention-inviting models include British-made Vincents: the 1955 998cc Black Prince and a 1952 998cc Black Shadow anticipated to fetch $56,000-$64,000 and $44,000 - $56,000 respectively.

Other highlights of the motorbikes include a 1935 Brough Superior 1,096cc 11-50hp, aka. The “Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles” as driven by T. E. Lawrence ($50,000 - $60,000); a 1927 BMW 500cc R47 ($36,000-$44,000); a 1937 Ariel 995cc Square Four Model 4G ($20,000-$24,000) adjoined by popularly known models by Harley Davidson, Ducati, Triumph and more. So, all you there with passion for antique and wheels shall rush now to invest their spare amount of dough by inking this neat deal.

Via Luxist

Another auction for charity! News is Tony Soprano’s boxers; black leather jacket, tan bathrobe and velour tracksuit falling amongst the old-fashioned mobster’s clothes are set to be auction at Christie’s International on 25 June in New York. James Gandolfini, who enacted the lethal yet oddly engaging New Jersey hooligan in “The Sopranos,” has plans to sell off 25 lots of clothing his character wore on the TV series that ended in June 2007. The profits, anticipated around $36,500 hence would be donated to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, a Jacksonville, Florida-based nonprofit that aids injured soldiers. As a part of auction comes black leather Harley Davidson motorcycle jacket owned by Elvis Presley sporting Elvis’ initials EP stitched on the inside breast along with his diamond encrusted “Chief Deputy, Shelby County, Tennessee” badge. The jacket is expected to sell for $2,000 on 25 June at Christie’s.

Via Bloomberg

A striking 1961 Bentley S2 once belonging to actor Sean Connery would reach the Bonhams’ auction house in England coming Saturday. The coupe is up for auction as a part of a Bonhams’ Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Select Pre-War Motor Cars and Automobilia Sale during the Rolls-Royce Enthusiast’s Club’s Annual Rally at historic Kelmarsh Hall near Northampton. The grand S2 model saloon (featured above) refined in two-tone Shell Grey/Tudor Grey with harmonizing red leather inside is anticipated at generate $24,000-$30,000.

Other visible models at the auction would include a rare 1919/20 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost Alpine Eagle ( $280,000-$320,000), the ex-Earls Court Motor Show 1962 Rolls-Royce Phantom V Touring Limousine (limited edition sedan with counted 13 models) estimated at $116,000-$130,000; a 1963 Bentley S3 Continental Flying Spur Saloon with coachwork by H J Mulliner ($130,000 -$140,000); and the queen of the sale, a 1976 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow Saloon (previously the belongings of Lord Leverhulme, Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, which has been tripped in by numerous affiliates of the Britsh Royal Family counting the Queen Mother, Prince Charles and the late Princess Di) expected to generate a sales of $26,000 - $30,000.

Via Luxist

Whist 1 June 2008 marked a gloomy day for the fashion industry and proved to be a weighted loss for fashionistas as French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent’s passed away. A month after, the fashion house planned an auction at Christie’s on 2 July. The auction collectibles include seven pieces of Saint Laurent’s attire & jewels featuring nearly every decade of his career. Popularly known as a style-setter, he was the most influential designer of the 20th century and his designer creations details pop-art print mini dresses, peasant skirts and graceful pantsuits that are appreciated till date. To be specific, the collection includes a 1958 Cocktail dress designed for Dior & a 1970 Rive Gauche camel cable knit sweater spruced in fox fur alike to the one that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore bearing a pre-sale estimate of $250-$400. A gray pink tulle twilight dress with tinny pink and silver embroidery, designed for Dior in 1958 is anticipated to generate a sum of about $1000-$1500.

Other accessories available for auction include a floral gold-tone metal and crystal stone necklace from 1990 that may fetch $1000-$1500, a hammered gilt-metal “ethnic” necklace from the 1970’s for $600-$800. Currently in fine form, the expected price might seem cheap but the low cost is because of reason they aren’t new designs. Other elegant collection making up to the auction included designer wears from Thierry Mugler, Christian Lacroix, Balenciaga & Gianni Versace.

Via MSNBC

Those who are interested in rarely found furniture made by Thomas Chippendale and designed by Robert Adam shall eye Christie’s upcoming auction in London. The head of London-based Christie’s head of the International Furniture Department Robert Copley shares: The 18 June auction will exhibit 12 masterpieces of furniture dating back to 18th century. This collection of English furniture includes five works by Thomas Chippendale detailing The Kenure Cabinet, the Dundas Bookcase and the Dundas Chairs. Whist the Dundas chairs are anticipated to fetch $2.92-$4.87 million and the Kenure Cabinet may generate $4.87-$7.79 million

Born a child to a carpenter father in Yorkshire, Chippendale success is due to his potential of not restricting himself to furniture-making and goes a level ahead in advising his clients on soft furnishings and shades to be tinted with. You may find most of the creations bathed in mahogany for simple reason that it is his favorite wood.

Via Business24X7

Athina Onassis, the heiress once hailed as ‘the richest little girl in the world’, is on a move to auction off her millions of pounds of jewelry that she inherited from her mother Christina. The fortune worth is amounted at £1 billion but her call for auction is the result of her decision that she has no need of what she sees as the glittering paraphernalia of a departed era. The jewelry collection up for auction is anticipated to generate £8 million on 11 June at Christie’s.

The exhibited collection include a pear-shaped 38-carat diamond estimated at up to £2.2 million, a ruby and diamond necklace by Van Cleef and Arpels expected to fetch £40,000, a rare Buddha by Carl Fabergé that was positioned on Onassis’s yacht likely to generate £250,000 to £350,000 plus a 14.79 carat diamond ring by Harry Winston worthy to realize £500,000-£700,000.

Via DailyMail