Flickr, via Walknboston
With eBay and Sotheby’s newly launched live auction experience, art collectors and buyers can browse or bid in real time from any desktop, laptop, or smartphone across the globe. On April 1st, Sotheby’s and eBay will open the online bidding with a themed New York sale and a Photographs sale, enhanced with videos, articles, and photos.
“This experience truly captures the best of both Sotheby’s and eBay,” says Bruno Vinciguerra, Sotheby’s Chief Operating Officer in the press release. To benefit both the curious and the cutthroat, we waded through lots that included Koons balloon dogs, Warhol watches, Longo prints, and highlighted the ten most extravagantly-priced pieces money can buy.
1) Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, La Liberté éclair ant le monde
According to Sotheby’s catalogue note, Bartholdi’s La liberté éclair ant le monde is not only the world’s best known monument, but also the world’s best known work of art and sculpture. With this monumental reputation in tow, it is no wonder that Lady Liberty in miniature comes at such a tidy sum. Estimated: $800,000-$1,200,000.
2) Yankee Stadium Sign, Circa 1976
Previously owned by the Yankee’s own iconic hard-hitter Reggie Jackson, these 13 blue Plexiglass letters can lend your household with 32 years of Yankee history…and the luck of Mr. October himself. Estimated: $300,000-$600,000.
3) Paul Strand, Rebecca
On Paul Strand’s preferred medium of platinum print, this uniquely intimate portrait is one of the famed photographer’s earliest studies of his muse and eventual wife Rebecca Salsbury. Estimated: $300,000-$500,000.
4) The Photography Sale, Lot 113: The Brown Sisters by Nicholas Nixon
Nicholas Nixon has taken a photograph of his wife Bebe and her three sisters on an 8-by-10-inch view camera every year for thirty-nine years. This 40-photo suite of Nixon’s enduring endeavour will put your family’s holiday cards to shame. Estimated: $200,000-$300,000.
5) The Photography Sale, Lot 145: The Little Screens by Lee Friedlander
An unknowing anticipation to the dilemmas of the Digital Age, Friendlander’s 38 photographs “capture the growing ubiquity of television in post-war America and offer deadpan comic commentary on the vacuity of popular culture.” Estimated: $200,000-$300,000.
6) The Photography Sale, Lot 66: Negative/Positive Photogram Pair by László Moholy-Nagy
Mirrored images of a simple, geometric photograph and its positive counterpart reveal Moholy’s interest in the manipulation of light in the photogram process. Estimated: $200,000-$300,000.
7) The New York Sale, Lot 7: The Gage Gold Freedom Box., Otto Philip Daniel Parisien, New York, 1773
It’s truly one of a kind: gifted to Major-General Thomas Gage by the Mayor of New York, Whitehead Hicks, in 1773, this elaborating carved Freedom Box is the only known Colonial gold freedom box in private hands. Estimated: $150,000-$250,000.
8) The New York Sale, Lot 71: Silver Figural Centerpiece, Tiffany & Co., Circa 1870-74
For a mere $75K, this adorable silver figurine, clad in a woven hat and armed with a scythe and wheat stalks, can grace your dining space as he perches upon the centerpiece oval mirror and eight bird’s class and acroteria feet. Estimated: $150,000-$250,000
9) The Photography Sale, Lot 60: Notre Dame de Paris by Pierre Dubreuil
Celebrated by Alfred Stieglitz as one of Dubreuil’s most influential photographs, Notre Dame de Paris is the composite of two fused negatives which create a unique, 3D space. Estimated: $80,000-$120,000.
10) The Photography Sale, Lot 9: Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico by Ansel Adams
From southwest’s sweeping landscape to your office wall: this majestic moonlit photo was shot in 1941 by America’s most iconic nature photographer. Estimated: $80,000-$120,000.
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