Frida Kahlo Portrait Sells for $55 Million, Setting Her Auction Record

The surrealistic self-portrait was made in 1940, a turbulent year in the Mexican artist’s life as her health and marriage deteriorated.

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CIA Kryptos Auction: Anonymous Bidder Pays Nearly $1 Million for Secret to Decode Sculpture

The creator of the Kryptos panels, Jim Sanborn, sought to unburden himself of the puzzle, and then discovered before an auction he had archived its solution in the Smithsonian.

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Ward Landrigan, Jeweler to the Stars, Dies at 84

At Sotheby’s, he provided famous diamonds to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton before reviving Verdura, a venerable jewelry company founded by a Sicilian duke.

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Superman Comic Sets Auction Record, Selling for $9.12 Million

A family’s forgotten copy of Superman No. 1, from 1939, was sold by Heritage Auctions.

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Night of Modern Art History, Night of Spectacle at Sotheby’s

At $236.4 million, a portrait by Gustav Klimt is the second most expensive painting at auction, while Maurizio Cattelan’s golden toilet drew $12.1 million.

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These Six Artworks Could Predict the Auction Market

The art market had a summer of closures and consolidations. But major collections, blue-chip art and guarantees have pushed expectations high for the marquee sales.

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Blue Diamond Sells for $25.6 Million at Auction in Switzerland

A 9.51-carat blue stone that once belonged to the heiress Bunny Mellon sold for $7 million less than at its last auction, a sign of profound shifts in the diamond industry.

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Solution to CIA’s Kryptos Sculpture Is Found in Smithsonian Vault

Jim Sanborn planned to auction off the solution to Kryptos, the puzzle he sculpted for the intelligence agency’s headquarters. Two fans of the work then discovered the solution.

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Bob Ross’s ‘Happy Little’ Paintings Will Be Auctioned

Thirty canvases, many created for viewers of Ross’s PBS series, “The Joy of Painting,” will be sold to benefit public television stations grappling with funding cuts.

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Sotheby’s Lands a Leonard Lauder Art Collection Worth More Than $400 Million

The collector’s trove of 55 works, including Klimt, Matisse and Munch, will be auctioned in November.

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