News about Auction
Dinosaur skeletons are becoming a new target for billionaires. Wealthy collectors are willing to pay tens of millions of dollars for rare fossils, turning these ancient giants into one of the most expensive alternative assets.
Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber set a new record among original props from the “Star Wars” franchise. At a Heritage Auctions event in the U.S., the weapon used by Mark Hamill in the film *Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back* sold for $3.75 million. The sale served as yet another confirmation of the growing interest among investors and collectors in iconic movie memorabilia.
On Friday, July 10, 2026, during an auction organized by the capital city’s municipality, land parcels were sold for a total of 59 million lei.
On October 1, Sotheby’s will hold its first-ever auction in Paris dedicated exclusively to wines from the French estate Château Haut-Brion.
A painting by Rembrandt van Rijn, which for decades was believed to be the work of an unknown artist, will be offered at a Sotheby’s auction in London on July 1. After a decade of restoration, experts have confirmed the master’s authorship. The estimated value of the painting “Let the Children Come to Me” is 8–12 million pounds sterling ($10.6–15.9 million).
On June 19, the Public Property Agency (PPA) announced that it would put state-owned properties—the Zarea Hotel, the Shtints Publishing House, and the Lumina Publishing and Printing Company—up for auction by vote.
The world’s first bag made from Tyrannosaurus rex leather is expected to go up for auction later this week.
Chisinau City Hall informs about the auction for the lease of premises owned by the municipality and not intended for residential use. It will take place on June 26, 2026 at 10:00.
The government of Georgia will auction a collection of 40,000 bottles of wines of Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks).
The global art market returned to growth in 2025 after two years of decline, but the recovery remains uneven and depends on the expensive segment. This is according to the annual Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026.
On May 18, the evening auction at Christie’s in New York turned into a historic event for the global art market. Jackson Pollock’s monumental work Number 7A (1948), from the collection of media magnate Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr., sold for $181.2 million including commissions, setting an all-time record for the artist.
Along with the two state-owned publishing houses “Știința” and “Lumina”, which will be offered for sale, the state’s share (11.2%) in the printing house “Metrompas” will also be auctioned.
The state decided not to keep the 30.08% stake in Alimentarmash JSC. It is included in the privatization list administered by the Public Property Agency.
After an unsuccessful attempt to realize these assets through a tender in 2021, the Public Property Agency intends to offer them through an auction. Similar to the Hotel Zarya, the two state-owned publishing houses Știința and Lumina, as well as the state’s share in the printing house Metrompas, will be sold.
A charity raffle with a work by Pablo Picasso has once again attracted attention: this time a rare work by the master went away not at a traditional auction, but went to the winner of the raffle for only 100 euros.
An electric guitar that belonged to Elvis Presley will be one of the brightest lots of the spring auction at Sotheby’s. It’s about the Hagstrom Viking II model – the instrument the musician used during his legendary television comeback in 1968.
At one of the largest wine auctions in the world was recorded an unprecedented deal: a bottle of legendary Burgundy wine Domaine de la Romanée-Conti harvest 1945 sold for 812.5 thousand dollars. The auction was held as part of the annual event La Paulée, organized by the auction house Acker.
The Italian car industry surprises again: a unique one-seater supercar from Dallara Automobili is preparing to change owners at the prestigious RM Sotheby’s auction. It is about the Macchina Posto Singolo model – a car created at the height of the pandemic, when most people were sitting at home, and the engineer Giampaolo Dallara realized an unusual project together with his team.
In Paris is preparing an event that could shake up the art market: March 26 auction house Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr will auction the largest work ever created by Salvador Dalí. It is about grandiose scenery for the ballet “Bacchanale” (“Bacchanale”) – a work that combines painting, theater and the manifesto of surrealism in one monumental project.
In 2025, Christie’s confidently crossed the $1 billion mark in luxury sales (excluding private transactions), demonstrating one of the most dynamic periods in recent years. The key driver of growth was young collectors, as well as the notable strengthening of digital sales channels.
