Collectibles

A rare and large Pteranodon skeleton sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York this evening for US$3,932,000, moving into the top five most valuable fossils of all-time: behind only Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor, Triceratops and Gorgosaurus.

It is less than 150 years since photography went mainstream. Prior to that, human illustration was all we had. This story is about a collection of the very finest and most important examples of printed human illustration.

One of Leica's 250 GG "Reporter" cameras fitted with a "Leica-Motor MOOEV,” the world’s first 35mm camera motor drive unit, has gone within a whisker of becoming the 14th camera to ever sell for more than US$1 million.

The fledgling Schuppan supercar company produced just a handful of lightning-quick, $1.5 million road cars before the company was forced to liquidate in 1994 when the Japanese asset price bubble burst. Now one of those six rare beasts is on the market.

The original and sole remaining Blastech DL-44 Blaster used by Han Solo (Harrison Ford) in the first 1977 Star Wars movie (Star Wars: A New Hope) has sold for a record US$1,057,500 at Rock Island Auctions.

At the "Buzz Aldrin: American Icon" auction yesterday, Sotheby’s sold the jacket worn to the moon by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin yesterday for $2,772,500, smashing all sorts of auction records in the process.

On July 16, an extremely rare and historically important thermometer made by Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, inventor of the mercury thermometer and the temperature scale that bears his name, sold for just US$93,750.

This is the second part of our overview of the 2021 auction year – a year where investors channeled more of their wealth into “investments of passion” than ever before. It covers the 150 science, sci-fi and technology artifacts that sold for more than $100,000

Nikola Tesla was one of the world's most important innovators and evidence of the gravitas of the Tesla name was on full display at an auction at Remarkable Rarities (RRAuctions) this week when a four-page autograph letter by Tesla fetched US$341,295.

The 2021 auction market was quite extraordinary, with unprecedented levels of participation and sales. From cars to colt revolvers to multi-million-dollar NFTs, this sweeping look at the highlights is full of fascinating tales and astonishing prices.

An AI algorithm called Botto has made somewhere around US$1.3 million at auction for its first six NFT artworks. Botto generates thousands of images, and a community of humans vote to influence its direction and decide which pieces go to auction.

A 54-page document handwritten in 1913-1914 by Albert Einstein and Swiss engineer Michele Besso, sold earlier today for €11.6 million. It’s the most paid in nearly eight decades for an autograph document by history’s most celebrated scientist.