This week’s top lots

Editorial Staff Art


What:
Pair of chairs, late 19th century
Where:
Rago Arts (December 5, Estate Sale)
Estimate:
$500-700
Sold For:
$390,400

This pair of American Aesthetic Movement chairs, which were inherited by the daughter-in-law of a Philadelphia-area couple and reportedly stored in a boiler room for forty years, are believed to be the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany or an associated firm.


What: Givenchy black lace cocktail dress
Where:
Kerry Taylor Auctions (December 8, Fashion & Fine Textiles)
Estimate:
£15,000-20,000
Sold For:
£60,000 or nearly $100,000

This elegant dress—one of about forty pieces recently sold from Audrey Hepburn’s closet—was worn by the actress in the 1966 film How to Steal a Million. Previously at auction, the Givenchy black satin gown she wore as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) sold for £467,200 or $923,187 (Christie’s London, 2006).

What: 1778 Clos du Griffier cognac
Where:
Piasa (December 7, Wines)
Estimate:
2,500-3,000
Sold For:
25,000 or $37,000

This rare bottle of Louis XV-era cognac, bought by London-based entrepreneur Raphael Zier, was the highest selling lot in the sale of about 18,000 of the more than 400,000 bottles from the cellar of the landmark Paris restaurant La Tour d’Argent.

What: Head of a Muse by Raphael
Where:
Christie’s London (December 8, Old Master & 19th Century Art)
Estimate:
£12-16 million
Sold For:
£29 million or $48 million

Fetching the highest price ever paid at auction for a work on paper, this drawing by Raphael was a rare auxiliary cartoon or detail study for the design of Parnassus, one of four frescoes the artist was commissioned to create for the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican between 1508 and 1511 .

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