2007 Auction Action- Record Prices
Eager Buyers Pay Outlandish Prices for Art, History and Pop Culture
2007 was a banner year for auctions. Record prices were set for a wide variety of antiques and collectibles.
The weak U.S. dollar and the resulting turmoil in financial markets have investors taking a closer look at antiques and collectibles. 2007 set record high prices for everything from contemporary art, to baseball cards, to antiquities. Here are some record setters:
Highest Price: Art Object
The Rothchild family’s Fabergé Egg was one of only 12 to have been made to Imperial standards for a private buyer by master jeweler, Peter Carl Fabergé. The gold, diamond and pink enamel egg had been in the Rothschild family for over a hundred years. It was given as a gift to Germaine Halphen on her engagement to Baron Edouard de Rothschild in 1905. It houses a clock and a cockerel that nods his head and flaps his wings on the hour. Auctioned by Christie’s, it was sold to an anonymous Russian bidder in less than ten minutes, for $18,500.000.
Highest Price: Contemporary Art
White Center (Yellow, Pink, and Lavender on Rose), a painting by Mark Rothko, set a record for price realized for contemporary American art at a Sotheby’s New York auction in May. The painting is considered contemporary art, though it was painted in 1950 by an artist who died in 1970. In 1998, it was loaned to the National Gallery in Washington DC. From there, it traveled to the Whitney in NY, then on to the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris. White Center, which set a record at just under $73 million, was previously owned by David Rockefeller.
Highest Price: Comic Book
An issue of Amazing Fantasy #15 that introduced Spider Man, recently set a record for the highest price for a comic book from the 1960s. The issue, which features art by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, was graded near mint. It sold in New York at a Heritage Auction in May of last year for a record $227,000.
Highest Price: American Art Pottery
A Frederick Rhead vase topped previous records with a winning bid of $516,000. The eleven inch tall vase was made around 1915, and decorated with a stylized California landscape. Rhead produced the piece in his Santa Barbara pottery, which was open only from 1914-1917. After closing the pottery, Rhead worked for various potteries in the Midwest, including The Homer Laughlin Company, for which he designed the ubiquitious Fiestaware line of casual dishes.
Highest Price: Disney Toy
A large pair of Minnie and Mickey Mouse dolls ca1930’s sold at a Hake’s Americana & Collectibles Auction for $151,534. These dolls were in mint condition, and part of the Charlotte Clark line, intended for displays in retail stores and movie theatres. The dolls were produced in three sizes with the larger sizes produced in limited quantities.
Highest Price: Baseball Card
The Honus Wagner T206 card has changed hands four times in the last ten years, and has almost doubled in price each time. Produced between 1909 and 1911 by Twentieth Century Tobacco, the card is a rarity because Wagner, considered by some to be the greatest shortstop of all time, did not approve of tobacco use, and, after a limited print run, refused to allow his likeness on a card distributed by tobacco products. The card broke records with a selling price of $2,800.00.
Highest Price: Antiquity
The Guennol Lioness, a 5,000 year old Mesopotamian sculpture sold for $57.2 million at Sotheby’s, making it the priciest sculpture of any age. The three-and-one-half inch white limestone sculpture has the body of a female body-builder and the head of a lion
