Auctions

John Legend Stunned The Crowd At Auction Last Night

I was peacefully enjoying the live auction at City Harvest's "Practical Magic" fundraiser at Cipriani 42nd Street last night when a surprise item came up for bidding. John Legend came up from the audience and offered to give a private concert to anyone who had room for a piano in their house! Shock ... More >>

How Uptown Money Kills Downtown Art

Robert Hughes, Giant

Why the late writer was our most important art critic

Locked Out Sotheby's Art Handlers, No. 84 On the Voice List of "Most Powerless New Yorkers," Back On the Job

We guess we'll have to strike the art professionals who handle some of the world's most expensive items when they head to auction from our list of the "100 Most Powerless New Yorkers." Crain's reported yesterday that auction house Sotheby's and the Teamsters worked out a deal which allows the art h ... More >>

Locked Out Art Handlers Have 14 Million New Reasons To 'Scream' At Sotheby's

As you may have heard, Sotheby''s had a good day yesterday, auctioning off Edward Munch's "The Scream" for a record $119.9 million dollars. Not having such a good day? The still locked-out art handlers at Sotheby's, who appeared as number 84 on the Voice's list of the "100 Most Powerless New Yorke ... More >>

London's Big-Deal Art Fair Hits New York, Occupy Hits Back

Seize the frieze

Sotheby's, Famed Auction House, Caught Knowingly Trying to Sell Stolen Cambodian Statue, Prosecutors Say

Sotheby's tried to sell a 1,000-year-old Cambodian statue that was pilfered from an important religious site, even though the famed auction house knew it had been stolen, federal prosecutors say. In a story filled with intrigue, spies, temple thieves, and the scent of money, federal prosecutors in ... More >>

Who's Getting Foreclosed on in Brooklyn Today? Apparently, No One

The Voice is starting a new feature several times a week. As foreclosures continue unabated across the nation, the Voice will be profiling the foreclosures that happen every week right here in the five boroughs. We'll be looking closely at the properties facing foreclosure, the public auctions where ... More >>

Here's What $388,375 Worth of Equations Look Like

via Heritage Auctions​We may finally have the answer to the eternal question posed by struggling algebra students everywhere: "When will I use this in real life?" The above image is from Heritage Auctions, and what appears to be a scribbled-in math quiz is actually the work of Apollo 13 Missio ... More >>

Diana Taylor, Bloomberg's Girlfriend and Sotheby's Board Member, Blasts Locked Out Art Handlers

​Mayor Bloomberg's normally reserved companion, Diana Taylor, lashed out at locked out Sotheby's art handlers, who interrupted a planning commission meeting to question her about the stalled negotiations, according to a video of the incident posted on youtube. Union officials called on Gov. Cu ... More >>

Lawyers and Activists Arrested in Brooklyn Courtroom While Stopping Foreclosures with Song (VIDEO)

Updated below: the singers have been released. Organizing for Occupation co-sponsored the first Occupy Wall Street action in Brooklyn today, and it didn't disappoint in terms of adding some Brooklyn flair to the once Manhattan bound scene. About a hundred people rallied outside Brooklyn Supreme Co ... More >>

Next Month, You Can Buy a Piece of Elaine's

​Although both Elaine and Elaine's have passed into the Great Beyond, there's still a chance to get a piece of Elaine Kaufman's legendary restaurant, which closed in May following Kaufman's death last December.

Does the Chelsea Hotel Have an Art Thief?

​Hot on the heels of the Hoboken Picasso thief, ArtInfo reports that the Chelsea Hotel has been undergoing a Thomas Crown affair of its own. The hotel, designated a landmark in 1966, put up for sale in 2010, has walls "caked with art" by former and current hotel residents, like Henri Cartier-B ... More >>

Buy This Old Mafia File, Found in a New York City Taxi, For $10,000

P. 460: Carlo Gambino​An old Mafia file found in a black bag in the back of a New York City cab in the early '90s containing mug shots, criminal histories, lists of associates, kids' and wives' names, and the favorite hangouts of 843 Mafia members in the '50s and '60s -- a trove of fascinating ... More >>

Anthony Weiner 'Replica Underwear' for Sale on EBay

​Clinging to the zeitgeist, an enterprising eBay salesperson known as "colbymercury," has taken to the online auction house to offer up a fine pair of Anthony Weiner Replica Underwear, starting bid, $0.99. (Buy them now for $499.99!) As for the description of the fairly average-looking gray bo ... More >>

Unabomber's Items Will Be Auctioned to Compensate Victims

U.S. Marshals Kaczynski's typewriter ​How would you like to have one of Ted Kaczynski's personal documents? Wait, you wouldn't? Well, why not? Doesn't everyone want to own a treasured item from one of America's most "celebrated" killers? (If you answered any one of these questions with "no," y ... More >>

Neko Case

Bernie Madoff's Boxers Could Be Yours, If You Are Weird and Creepy

Bernie's boxers. They're a size 40. (via MSNBC)​If "weird and creepy," or, "historically intrigued," or, "needing some new underwear" happen to fit you, you should crack open your piggy banks for Saturday's auction of Bernie (and Ruth) Madoff's duds -- not just boxers but art, furniture, glass ... More >>

Elvis's Hair For Sale!

The King's crown. ​This just in: "In a last minute edition to Heritage Auctions' Aug. 14 Ultimate Elvis Auction at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, the auction house has announced that a large quantity of Elvis Presley's hair, cut from his trademark pompadour and originating in the collection of ... More >>

Special Things for People Without Summer Fridays: Baby Sea Lion (Video!)

​New babies! We love new babies. Especially when they are super-cute baby sea lions born at the New York Aquarium: An as-yet-unnamed female sea lion has been born to mama sea lion Clarice, and is the first sea lion to be born at the Aquarium.

LIKE A VIRGIN

HERE presents Candy Tastes Nice

WARHOL FOREVER

15 minutes extends into infinity

Bailout to Bailout: Chesley Sullenberger's Junk Plane Will Be Auctioned for Scrap by Junk Company AIG

Good riddance to an ill-fated plane. The Airbus A320 jetliner that lost a battle with birds and then a life-or-death battle with hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger in last year's "Miracle on the Hudson" is finally headed for the auction block and then the scrap heap. Shortly after the one-year anniv ... More >>

Ray's and Tavern on the Green: Two Sagas Continue

Everything must go.​Updates in the continuing sagas of two eateries that couldn't be more different in concept but face a curiously similar predicament: Ray's Candy, the Avenue A shop that nearly closed last week after 36 years in business, isn't out of the woods yet. The Villager has penned a ... More >>

Tavern on the Green Prepares to Put Itself on the Auction Block

Everything must go.​Right on the heels of news that Cafe des Artistes is auctioning off everything but its famous murals (the auction closes at 4 p.m. today) comes word from Diner's Journal that Tavern on the Green's possessions will be on the block January 13-14.

NYC Pinoys for Pinoys Benefit Dining Event

To benefit victims of Typhoon Ondoy/Ketsana

Madonna Ex Auctioning Her Phone Messages, Erotic Faxes

 Here's a new way a high-roller with a Madonna fetish can spend his or her money: some guy who used to date Madonna is auctioning off her phone messages to him, among other stuff. At the Rock and Roll Pop Art Auction, commencing Monday, you can obtain "two original microcassettes from Jim Albri ... More >>

Stephen Baldwin's NY House to Be Auctioned June 24

Stephen Baldwin was once nice enough to give Runnin' Scared an interview, so we are compelled to express our regret that his house in Rockland County has been foreclosed upon and is scheduled to be auctioned off on June 24. The former star of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here and his wife have ... More >>

Bones' Beat: Richard Prince's Canal Zone at Gagosian

Christie's 'Punk/Rock' Auction: The Crying of Lot '77

PIÉCE DE CRAP

Judah Friedlander sells you his primo junk

Danny Meyer: Dreaming of Sarah Palin and Curried Moose

GOING, GOING, GONE!

Bid on original pieces by Thurston and Yoko

Sotheby's, a Retired Teacher, and California Artist Martín Ramirez

Auctionable behavior in the middle of a folk-art fight

ART DECK-O

Ride it, or hang it

James Brown? James Brown! Auctioning Off His Collection at Christie's

Cruise Ships and the Art of Piracy

Clip Job: Jules Feiffer Reads for A Sane Nuclear Policy

A Magna Carta Sales Event!

Hammered

Auctions are like stripteases, relying on the audience being enticed by what’s out of reach

Dreamy Poirets, the Nazi Chanel, and Other Tales of Paris

Going, Going, Gone!

Moby, Jay McInerney sold to the highest bidder; Interpol go undercover

Photo Shop

Empty Promises

Housing Activists Say the City Wastes Its Vacant Lots

What Becomes a Legend Most?

Selling King's Papers; Reclaiming Malcolm X's

Going? Going? Gone!

Is the Art World’s Cult of Secrecy About to End?

Garden-Variety Politics

Councilmember Spigner Weeds Out Queens Lot

Leaving Your Past Behind

Poetry Project

'Ginsberg and Friends' at Sotheby's

Spring Catalogue

Plots thicken as gardens head for auction block