The great bacon in a wynn wynn situation!
The mysterious buyer of a record-setting Francis Bacon painting has been revealed, Elaine Wynn, billionaire co-founder of the Wynn Casino Empire and Stephen Wynn’s ex-wife. The connoisseur spent $142.4 million on the work of art at a Christie’s auction last year. Wynn was also gracious enough to put the painting on temporary exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. The painting in question, Three Studies of Lucian Freud depicts Sigmund Freud’s grandson, a fellow painter and friend of Bacon’s. Wynn’s estimated net worth is $1.9 billion, according to news reports.
Watch of the world
Henry Graves Supercomplication might just fetch $17 million at Sotheby’s Geneva. Many consider this master timepiece the world’s most famous watch. And it is on the auction block as the centerpiece of Sotheby’s Geneva sale of Important Watches this November.
The Henry Graves Super- complication made by Patek Philippe in 1933 is the most complicated watch ever made completely by human hand. It reappeared on the market, 15 years after its record sale and will coincide with Patek Philippe’s 175th anniversary celebrations. It has an estimate in excess of $16.8 million.
Sotheby’s first sold the timepiece in New York in December 1999, with an estimate of $3-5 million. It has been called the indisputable ‘Holy Grail’ of watches.” In 1925, Patek Philippe was commissioned by Henry Graves, a prominent New York banker, to produce the most complicated watch in the world. It has a gold openface minute repeating chronograph clockwatch with Westminster chimes, a perpetual calendar, moon phases, sidereal time, power reserve, and indications for time of sunset and sunrise and the night sky of New York City.
Ruling the Rooster in visions of gold
It was not a golden goose, but a Golden Rooster, and it was sold for $234,000 at an annual auction in Reno. The rooster was sold at the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino for $234,000. The rooster was among the 314 art pieces gathered from the around the country for the auction, which generated an estimated $30 million in revenues.
The rooster has been around for decades at the Nugget and many people gathered to see it for the last time. Auctioned pieces included statues and paintings of Native Americans, cowboys and desert landscapes. The most expensive pieces included a painting Trail of the Iron Horse, by Charles M. Russell, which sold for $1.9 million. Another smaller oil painting, Dakota Chief, sold for $1 million.
The Coin from another era
A selection of superb gems can be found in the catalogue of the upcoming auction sale #39 of Paul-Francis Jacquier. The focus is on the Greek east, rare Antoniniani and the Gallic Empire. You better mark the following date in your calendar: September 12, 2014. Almost 1,100 lots of ancient coins, cut gemstones, mobiliary art objects and numismatic literature will be auctioned off. Within the 22 Celtic and 141 Greek coins the aficionado, has a choice of numerous pieces that stand out.
