- 193
| Mar 28 | The whole world is auctioned off in Rome-Didius Julianus buys emperorship. | Ref: 10 |
- 1673
| Feb 20 | First recorded wine auction held (London). | Ref: 5 |
- 1744
| Mar 11 | Samuel Baker and nephew John Sotheby sell 457 vol. library reaping £826 in first Sotheby's auction. | Ref: 10 |
- 1766
| Dec 05 | London auctioneers Christie's hold their first sale. | Ref: 5 |
- 1870
| May 28 | First stamp auction in America held in New York City. | Ref: 10 |
- 1914
| Jul 09 | First auction bridge championship tournament held at Lake Placid Club, N.Y. | Ref: 10 |
- 1915
| Sep 21 | Stonehenge and 30 surrounding acres is sold by auction for 6,600 pounds sterling ($11,500) to a Mr. Chubb, who buys it as a present for his wife. He presents it to the British nation three years later. The "stones of amazing size". | Ref: 2 |
- 1918
| Aug 17 | The famous race horse, Man o’ War, is sold at auction for $5,000 to Samuel Riddle. | Ref: 5 |
- 1924
| Dec 18 | The first radio broadcast of a livestock auction takes place from Chicago. (XDG, p 4A, 12/18/2000) | Ref: 83 |
- 1947
| Jan 28 | In NY City, a copy of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book was purchased at an auction at Parke-Bernet Galleries for $150,000 --the highest price ever paid to date for a single volume. (The original title of the book was: "The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre."). | Ref: 5 |
- 1959
| May 06 | The Pablo Picasso painting of a Dutch girl was sold for $154,000 in London. It was the highest price paid to that time for a painting by a living artist. | Ref: 4 |
- 1965
| Mar 19 | Rembrandt's "Titus" sells for then record ƒ7,770,000. | Ref: 5 |
- 1971
| Jun 04 | Yehudi Menuhin's 250 year-old Stradivarius sells for record $200,000 at Sotheby's. | Ref: 10 |
- 1973
| Jan 07 | World record auction price for car; Earl Clark purchases Mercedes owned by Hitler for $153,000. | Ref: 10 |
- 1978
| Apr 07 | Guttenberg bible sold for $2,000,000 in NYC. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 09 | Gutenberg Bible (1 of 21) sells for $2.4 million, London. | Ref: 5 |
- 1979
| May 24 | Single bottle of 1806 Chateau Lafite claret auctioned for $28,000. | Ref: 10 |
| Dec 03 | Christie's auctions a thimble for a record $18,400. | Ref: 5 |
- 1980
| Apr 05 | World's rarest stamp, the one-cent British Guiana 1856 magenta, auctioned for $850,000 in NY. | Ref: 10 |
| May 29 | J Turner's painting ‘Juliet and Her Nurse' sold for auction record $6.4 million in New York. | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 12 | Oil tycoon Armand Hammer bought a notebook of writings by Leonardo da Vinci for $5.28 million at auction in London. It was the highest price ever paid for a manuscript. It was 36 pages long and dated back to 1508. | Ref: 4 |
- 1981
| Jun 21 | 12-bottle case of 1979 Napamedoc Cabernet wine auctioned for $24,000. | Ref: 5 |
| Dec 22 | London was the scene of a rock ’n’ roll auction where buyers paid $2,000 for a letter of introduction from Buddy Holly to Decca Records. John and Cynthia Lennon’s marriage certificate was worth $850 and an autographed program from the world premiere of the Beatles film "Help!" brought $2,100. | Ref: 4 |
- 1985
| Dec 05 | Single bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite initialed by Thomas Jefferson sold at Christie's for $157,500. | Ref: 10 |
- 1986
| Apr 11 | A Canadain 1921 50¢ piece auctioned in NYC for $22,000. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 27 | Bugatti Royale car built in 1931 sold for record $6.5 million at auction in Reno, NV. | Ref: 10 |
| Sep 25 | An 1884-S Barber Head dime - one of only a dozen in existence - brought $83,000 in a CA coin auction. | Ref: 4 |
| Nov 13 | The state of CA put Fricot City on the auction block for $8.8 million. The ‘city’ was actually the former ranch/private estate of Desiré Fricot. It had become a CA Youth Authority camp in 1945. Located about 60 miles southeast of Sacramento, Fricot City featured some twenty homes, two gymnasiums, two swimming pools, a full twelve-grade school, a fire station, an infirmary and a chapel. | Ref: 4 |
| Dec 01 | Georges Braque's "Woman Reading"sells for $9.5 million at Sotheby's, London. | Ref: 10 |
| Dec 10 | Rembrandt's "Portrait of Young Girl Wearing Gold-Trimmed Coat" sells for $10.3 million. | Ref: 10 |
- 1987
| Mar 30 | Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers brought $39.85 million (or £22.5M) -- more than triple the record for an auctioned painting. The sale was on the 134th anniversary of the birth of the artist. Singer Don McLean wrote and sang a musical tribute to this artistic genius, titled Vincent, in April of 1972. | Ref: 4 |
| Apr 02 | $2,126,646 paid for 19.7 carat emerald at Sotheby's, Geneva; engagement ring of Edward VII. | Ref: 10 |
| Apr 03 | Duchess of Windsor's jewels auctioned for £31,380,197. | Ref: 5 |
| May 22 | $4,394,500 paid for a Mozart manuscript of nine symphonies at Sotheby's, London. | Ref: 10 |
| Jun 29 | Vincent Van Gogh’s Le Pont de Trinquetaille brought in $20.4 million at an auction in London, England. No one knows who the anonymous European collector was who paid that staggering price for the piece of art. No one, that is, except the buyer. | Ref: 4 |
| Oct 11 | Van Gogh's "Irises" sells for record $53.6 M at auction. | Ref: 5 |
| Nov 11 | An unidentified buyer buys Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Irises" from the estate of Joan Whitney Payson for $53.9 million at Sotheby's in NY. | Ref: 2 |
| Nov 18 | 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO sells for record $1.6 million at Rhode Island auction. | Ref: 10 |
| Dec 11 | Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat and cane auctioned at Christies for £82,500. | Ref: 10 |
- 1988
| Apr 19 | Record nine million dollars paid for 85.9 carat pear-shaped diamond at Sotheby's, New York. | Ref: 10 |
| May 02 | Jackson Pollock's "Search" sold for $4,800,000. | Ref: 5 |
| May 10 | Edgar Degas' "Danseresje of 14" sold for $10,120,000. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 28 | ”Dans La Prairie"("In the Meadow”) by Claude Monet sold for $24.59 million at Sotheby's London. | Ref: 10 |
| Nov 10 | "False Start,"a painting by Jasper Johns, sold for record $17.05 million by Sotheby's, New York. | Ref: 10 |
| Nov 28 | Picasso’s Acrobat and Young Harlequin brought £21 million at Christie’s in London. The painting was one of many that Adolf Hitler had sold in 1939 to ‘cleanse’ Germany of the disturbing images created by painters such as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. | Ref: 4 |
- 1989
| Apr 03 | Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "La Promenade"sold by Sotheby's London for $17.6 million. | Ref: 10 |
| May 09 | Paul Gauguin's "Mata Mua"(In Olden Times) sold for $24.2 million at Sotheby's New York. | Ref: 10 |
| May 09 | Sotheby's also reaps $47.85 million for "Yo Picasso"self-portrait of Pablo. | Ref: 10 |
| May 17 | Vincent Van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr Gachet" auctioned for $825 million. | Ref: 5 |
| Jun 21 | Original script of "Citizen Kane"sold at a New York auction for a record $210,000. | Ref: 10 |
| Nov 30 | Japanese developer pays $51.3 m. for Picasso's 1904 "Pierrette's Wedding" at Paris auction. | Ref: 10 |
- 1990
| May 15 | "Portrait of Doctor Gachet" by Vincent Van Gogh sold for $825 million. | Ref: 5 |
| May 17 | Renoir's 1876 painting "At the Moulin de la Galette"sold for $78.1 million at Sotheby's N.Y. | Ref: 10 |
- 1991
| Jun 13 | Copy of Declaration of Independence printed July 4, 1776 sold for $2.42 million at Sotheby's, N.Y. | Ref: 10 |
- 1992
| Nov 10 | ”Asia" by Matisse sold at Sotheby's NY to Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth for $11 million. | Ref: 10 |
- 1993
| May 10 | Paul Cézannes still life sells for $28,600,000 in NYC | Ref: 2 |
| May 11 | Cézanne's "Still Life With Apples"sells for record $28.6 million at Sotheby's auction in New York. | Ref: 10 |
- 1994
| Nov 10 | The Codex Leicester, the only Leonardo da Vinci manuscript owned in the United States and the only one in the world still in private hands, was sold at auction. Microsoft chairman Bill Gates paid $30.8 million for it. It has been since been exhibited in Venice, Milan, Rome, Paris and NY. | Ref: 4 |
| Dec 06 | Maltese Falcon auctioned for $398,590. | Ref: 5 |
- 1995
| May 17 | $16,548,750 paid for 100.10 carat diamond at Sotheby's, Geneva by Arab Sheik. | Ref: 10 |
| Dec 04 | The home run ball Cal Ripken hit on the night he he tied Lou Gehrig's record is sold by Michael Stirn, the fan who caught it, to a Maryland businessman at an auction for $41,736. | Ref: 1 |
- 1996
| Oct 29 | Art stolen by the Nazis from Austrian-Jewish families during German occupation of Austria is auctioned in Vienna, Austria. Emotional bidders at the two-day auction spend record sums for the art, with proceeds aiding needy Holocaust survivors and their heirs. | Ref: 3 |
- 1997
| Jun 14 | A 1939 comic book featuring the first appearance of Batman was auctioned off for $68,500 by Sotheby's in New York. (XDG, p 4A, 6/14/2002) | Ref: 83 |
| Jun 24 | World record for watercolour painting Van Gogh's 'La Moisson en Provence' 1888 sells for $8 mil. | Ref: 10 |
- 1998
| Jan 28 | Michelangelo's "Christ & the Woman of Samaria", sold for $7.4 million | Ref: 5 |
| Feb 11 | Lyrics to "Candle in the Wind 1997" auctioned for $442,500. | Ref: 5 |
| Apr 01 | World record price for musical instrument 1727 Stradivari violin sold at Christies for £947,500. | Ref: 10 |
- 1999
| Jan 12 | Setting an all-time record, Mark McGwire's 70th HR ball is purchased at an auction by an anonymous buyer for $3 million; the previous largest amount ever paid for a ball was $126,500 which bought a Babe Ruth home run ball. | Ref: 1 |
| May 10 | Cézanne's 'Still Life With Curtain, Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit' reaps $60.5 million at Sotheby's. | Ref: 10 |
- 2000
| May 24 | Anthony Landini sold his pair of ruby slippers at Christie’s East, NY. Landini had purchased the slippers in 1988 for $165,000. The pair was one of several worn by Dorothy (Judy Garland) in the movie, The Wizzard of Oz. Landini had grabbed the slippers at an auction at Christie’s. He sold them at that same auction house 12 years later to movie memorabilia collector David Elkouby, who paid $600,000, plus a $66,000 commission. After the auction, Landini was quoted as saying, “There’s no place like Christie’s.” “There’s no place like Christie’s.” | Ref: 4 |
| Jul 15 | The American Tobacco Company's near-mint condition 1909 Honus Wagner card goes for $1.1 million in an eBay online auction; the high bidder will pay $1.265 million including a 15 percent buyer's premium for the 91 year-old card of the Hall of Fame Pirate shortstop. | Ref: 1 |
| Jul 16 | An 1919 Chicago "Black Sox" autographed baseball is auctioned for $93,666 at eBay. The ball's value, believed to be the most for such an item, was unusually high because the autographs included Shoeless Joe Jackson who was considered illiterate and usually just signed legal documents. | Ref: 1 |
| Dec 13 | Rembrandt's Portrait of a Lady sold for world record £19.8 million at Christie's in London. | Ref: 10 |
- 2001
| Aug 07 | Black Betsy, Shoeless Joe Jackson's 40-ounce warped hickory bat, is won by 30-year-old businessman Rob Mitchell in a 10-day eBay auction. The $577,610 price tag is believed to be the largest amount ever paid for a baseball bat. | Ref: 1 |
- 2002
| Mar 21 | World's oldest photo, taken in 1825 by Jos. Nicephore Niepce, sold for €450,000 at Paris Auction. | Ref: 10 |
| Jun 24 | Nymphease Monet's waterlillies - sells for £13.48 million at Sotheby's-short of £18m '98 record. | Ref: 10 |
| Jul 10 | Rubens "Massacre of the Innocents" sells for all time record of £49.5 million at Sotheby's London. | Ref: 10 |
- 2003
| Nov 20 | A 103.68 carat diamond, billed as the largest diamond ever put up for auction, fails to sell at Sotheby's in Geneva because it falls short of the $8.42M asking price. Bidding stops at $7.65M. | |
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Auctions & Sales Chronology