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James Watson's DNA Nobel Sells for $4.1M

$4.8M if you count the premium paid to Christie's

(Newser) - James Watson will collect $4.1 million for the Nobel medal he received in 1962 for unraveling the structure of DNA. The anonymous buyer will actually have to shell out $4.8 million counting the premium that goes to Christie's auction house, reports the New York Times . The newspaper...

Historian Watching Movie Spots Long-Lost Painting

'Sleeping Lady with Black Vase' was last seen in 1928, bought for $500

(Newser) - Hungarian art historian Gergely Barki was watching Stuart Little with his young daughter five Christmases ago when he noticed a painting above the mantelpiece in the film—and did a double-take. It looked just like "Sleeping Lady with Black Vase," a painting by Hungarian artist Robert Bereny that...

Most Famous Movie Piano Sells for $3.4M

'Casablanca' instrument still had piece of gum stuck to it

(Newser) - The most famous piano in movie history has been sold at auction for $3.4 million—complete with a "petrified chewing gum wad stuck to underside of keyboard." The piano that featured heavily in Casablanca was the star of a sale of movie memorabilia at Bonhams in New...

Up for Auction: Marilyn Monroe's Love Letters

Including notes from Joe DiMaggio, Arthur Miller

(Newser) - It's no secret Joe DiMaggio loved Marilyn Monroe. The baseball great cried at her funeral and for 20 years had flowers placed at her crypt several times a week. The public displays were unusual for the famously stoic and private DiMaggio. Now, his heartbreak over the breakup of their...

Manet Painting Reaps Record $65M

French impressionist painting from 1881 had been valued at $25M to $30M

(Newser) - An 1881 painting by French impressionist Edouard Manet raked in $65.13 million at an auction in New York yesterday—a record for the artist. (Manet's previous auction record is $33 million for a self-portrait sold at Sotheby's in London in 2010.) AFP reports that "Le...

Connecticut Ghost Town Up for Auction

Start your bidding for Johnsonville, Connecticut, at $800K

(Newser) - Bidders who aren't scared off by million-dollar purchases can take possession of an American ghost town in Connecticut. Johnsonville was a robust mill community in the 19th century, but it is now abandoned and up for sale at auction.com . Bids start at $800,000, and the top one...

New Images of JFK's Fairy-Tale Wedding Surface

13 'unpublished' photos, negatives sell for $34K at auction

(Newser) - Thirteen photographs from John F. Kennedy's wedding to Jacqueline Bouvier have been printed for what may be the first time since the images were taken 60 years ago. An unnamed Las Vegas doctor bought the negatives, each paired with a print, at a Boston auction yesterday for $34,073....

Want a Lighthouse? Feds Giving Them Away

100 sold in 14 years, unknown number still available

(Newser) - Ever wish your man cave or summer retreat was in a lighthouse? You may be in luck, now that the federal government is selling or giving away dozens of them, the AP reports. They've shed 100 obsolete or unneeded lighthouses in 14 years, 68 of them freebies handed off...

Slice of Diana's Wedding Cake Sells for $1.4K

It's 33 years old now

(Newser) - Somewhere out there is what the Independent calls a "passionate group of royal cake collectors." And one member of that group shelled out $1,375 this week for a 33-year-old slice of cake served at Charles and Diana's wedding in 1981. "With best wishes from Their...

Robin Williams' Donated Bike Raises $20K for Charity

Still had mud on tires from actor riding it

(Newser) - Robin Williams loved cycling—he even once gave Conan O'Brien a "ridiculous" bike to cheer him up—and a few weeks before his death, he donated his custom-made Pegoretti bicycle to a charity auction, Page Six reports. At Saturday night's Hotbed Benefit, which raised funds for 10,...

Car Auctions Off for Record-Breaking $34M

Ferrari 250 GTO was once owned by Olympic gold medalist

(Newser) - A rare 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO once owned by a famed racing driver and Olympic gold medalist has sold for $34.65 million. Yesterday's sale at an auction in California during Monterey Car Week is believed to be a record public auction price for a classic car, topping the...

World's 'Longest Poop' Could Fetch $10K

A Beverly Hills gallery will put fossilized excrement on the auction block

(Newser) - This Saturday, a Beverly Hills gallery plans to auction off a piece of crap—literally. The IM Chait Gallery says it will put a 40-inch-long piece of excrement up for auction, and it hopes to fetch around $10,000, LiveScience reports. Why the big bucks? The "eye-watering" poop "...

Academy Sues Winner's Heirs for Selling His Oscar

The Academy is not pleased with auction

(Newser) - Once you win an Oscar, that golden statuette is yours to do with as you please ... right? Wrong. One of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' bylaws states that before a member can sell an Oscar, they must first offer it to the Academy for $10. And the...

Elvis' Armpit-Stained Jumpsuit for Sale

It could fetch as much as $200K at auction

(Newser) - Would you pay $200,000 for an old white jumpsuit with sweat stains in the armpits? No? What if said jumpsuit (and sweat) belonged to none other than the King himself? One of Elvis Presley's suits—featuring, in addition to the sweat, a bejeweled peacock and worn during his...

Stamp Owned by Killer Sets 4th World Record

By weight, stamp is most expensive thing ever sold

(Newser) - The most valuable substance on Earth is now paper —if it happens to have an 1856 British Guiana 1-cent stamp printed on it. The rare stamp, the only one of its kind still in existence, sold for $9.5 million to an anonymous buyer at auction last night, reports...

This Will Be the Priciest Object Ever Sold*

*By size and weight

(Newser) - A stamp, created by a newspaper publisher when a British colony ran out of proper stamps in 1856, "will be by size and weight simply the most expensive object ever sold in history." The British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta stamp will sell at Sotheby's on June...

Titanic's 'Last Letter' Going Up for Auction

Letter was written on day before ship sank, never sent

(Newser) - On the afternoon of Sunday, April 14, 1912, Esther Hart wrote a letter to her mother back in London. In it, she described being too sick to eat the day prior, but having felt better and attending a church service that morning—on board the RMS Titanic, which sunk early...

'Unseen' John Lennon Letter Rants About Pee Incident

Music legend sells out his two pals for urinating in studio

(Newser) - It was a letter dubbed "A Matter of Pee." In it, an irritated John Lennon wrote to producer Phil Spector that it was Who drummer Keith Moon—a hell-raiser with a thing for blowing up toilets and TVs—and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson who urinated on a recording console...

Attic Find: 'One-of-a-Kind' 1775 Revolution Letter

A Continental Congress plea to the British people for reconciliation

(Newser) - A "one-of-a-kind document" James Madison once raved about has been discovered in the attic of George Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary War. Emilie Gruchow of Manhattan's Morris-Jumel Mansion stumbled upon the yellowed, 12-page plea from the Continental Congress to the British people for reconciliation last summer in...

Olympic Medal That Enraged Hitler Up for Auction

Jesse Owens' only surviving 1936 gold hits the block

(Newser) - A precious piece of sports history—and history itself—is hitting the auction block: the only known original Jesse Owens gold medal. It's unclear which of Owens' four 1936 Olympic wins the medal is attached to, and the whereabouts of the other three are unknown. But it's the...

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