Bela Szandelszky / AP
A man walks across the basement of the Pinter Gallery storing portraits of Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin before their auction in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday, Nov. 22, 2010. More than 200 pieces of communist era relics were found by the Hungarian government in various ministries and state warehouses and will be sold in early December to benefit the victims of last month's red sludge disaster.
The auction proceeds will be given to Caritas, a Catholic charity, to help residents in western Hungary hit by the toxic red sludge reservoir breach in October. It's nice to see some benefit to the people of Hungary from the communist era, during which hundreds of thousands were sent to labor camps or otherwise disappeared.
Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters
A pair of boxer shorts belonging to Bernard Madoff are displayed by an auctioneer during a media preview, Nov. 10, 2010.
Unlike last year’s auction of ill-gotten goods, comprised mostly of jewelry and other high-end objects owned by Madoff and his wife, Ruth, an auction this weekend will feature everyday pieces such as frying pans, wicker baskets, patio furniture, and unmentionables including Ruth Madoff's Prada panty hose and Bernie's designer boxers.
Read the full story and see some of the items up for auction from here.
Juliens Auctions via Reuters
A set of X-rays of physicist Albert Einstein's head, taken in 1945, are expected to fetch between $1,000 and $2,000. The Icons and Idols sale on Dec 3 and 4 in Beverly Hills features more than 650 lots of pop culture memorabilia.
Fascinating, but what on earth would you do with this?
Carl Court / AFP - Getty Images
An employee adjusts the helmet on a rare Darth Vader costume at Christies auction house in central London, Oct. 27, 2010. The costume forms part of the 'Popular Culture: Film and Entertainment' auction, and is expected to fetch close to $300,000, and is due to be sold on Nov. 25th.
From the Christie's website:
Popular Culture, a new auction category at Christie's, will feature iconic 20th and 21st century material from the worlds of film, rock and roll, celebrity, entertainment and sport. ...
Entertainment memorabilia is a diverse category that ranges from film props and costumes worn by Hollywood icons, vintage guitars and handwritten lyrics by music legends, to animation art and film posters. Such items have contributed to the delight of generations, and helped build a worldwide collectors' market.
Ansel Adams/AP via Sotheby's
A print of 'Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park" likely created in the 1950s or 1960s. The image, which sold for a record $722,000 on Monday, June 21, is among 1,000 Polaroid and gelatin silver prints by some of the biggest names in 20th-century photography being offered by Sotheby's as part of a bankruptcy court-approved sale. The largest number of works were taken by Adams, about 400 Polaroid and non-Polaroid images. The two-day sale concludes Tuesday evening, June 22.
A historic sale of works by some of the biggest names in 20th-century photography set records for Ansel Adams and Lucas Samaras during a two-day auction of iconic images from the Polaroid corporate collection that continued Tuesday.
Read the full story HERE.
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