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An art installation of a banana duct taped to a wall that was previously hailed as a 'defiant work of pure genius' has sold at Sotheby's in New York for $6.2 million. Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan's 'Comedian' piece was snatched up by Chinese crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, who outbid six other offers on Wednesday. 'After over 6 minutes of heated bidding, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby's and Chairman of Sotheby's China, Jen Hua, placed the winning bid for 'Comedian' on behalf of, Chinese collector and founder of cryptocurrency platform TRON, Sotheby's announced on X.

Type 57 SC Atlantic disappeared back in 1938The upcoming auction of a Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Recreation by RM Sotheby's in Dubai has sparked immense interest due to its ties to an elusive piece of automotive history. This particular model pays homage to the original Type 57 SC Atlantic, one of the rarest and most iconic cars ever produced. Ettore Bugatti crafted only four of these masterpieces between 1936 and 1938, each embodying the pinnacle of automotive engineering and design at the time. The body of the original Atlantic was the brainchild of Jean Bugatti, Ettore's son, featuring revolutionary 'Art...

The Codex Sassoon, believed to date from the late 9th or early 10th century, was bought at Sotheby’s by the American Friends of the ANU — Museum of the Jewish People.The oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible sold at Sotheby’s for $38.1 million on Wednesday, one of the highest prices for a book or historical document ever sold at auction.The volume, known as the Codex Sassoon, includes all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, minus about eight leaves, including the first 10 chapters of Genesis. Researchers have dated it to the late ninth or early 10th century, making it the oldest near-complete...

JERUSALEM (AP) — One of the oldest surviving biblical manuscripts, a nearly complete 1,100-year-old Hebrew Bible, could soon be yours — for a cool $30 million. The Codex Sassoon, a leather-bound, handwritten parchment tome containing almost the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, is set to go on the block at Sotheby’s in New York in May. Its anticipated sale speaks to the still bullish market for art, antiquities and ancient manuscripts even in a worldwide bear economy. Sotheby’s is drumming up interest in hopes of enticing institutions and collectors to bite. It has put the price tag at an eye-watering...

Two wooden armchairs that were gathering dust in a Vancouver Island church for decades may prove to save the financially-challenged parish after they were discovered to be rare and valuable Qing dynasty treasures. They'd been there, in a quiet spot along the back wall of the St. Matthias Anglican Church in Victoria, possibly since the parish opened the doors of its new home nearly 50 years ago. Now the church, which has struggled to survive since a damaging schism over same-sex marriage in 2009, is poised for a potential windfall when the chairs are auctioned next month in New York,...

The 1297 copy of the Magna Carta is the only one in private ownership A rare copy of the Magna Carta has been sold for £10.6m ($21.3m) in an auction at Sotheby's in New York.The copy dating from 1297, one of only 17 still in existence, was bought by US businessman David Rubenstein. The auction item had been owned by American billionaire Ross Perot's Perot Foundation since 1984 and was on view at the National Archives in Washington. The original Magna Carta was sealed by King John of England in 1215 and enshrined civil rights in English law. 'Temporary...