Rare 5,000-year-old ancient Mesopotamian sculpture breaks auction record

An extremely rare 5,000-year-old sculpture from ancient Mesopotamia sold for whopping 57.2 million dollars in New York on Wednesday. The carved Guennol Lioness statue stands just over eight centimeters (3 1/4 inches) tall. The tiny miniature has shattered previous record sells for both sculpture and antiquities. The white limestone tiny statue has been described as one of the last known masterworks from the dawn of civilization remaining in private hands. The Sotheby's auction house said, "It was an honor for us to handle The Guennol Lioness, one of the greatest works of art of all time," Richard Keresey and Florent Heintz, the experts in charge of the sale, said in a joint statement. "Before the sale, a great connoisseur of art commented to us that he always regarded the figure as the 'finest sculpture on earth' and it would appear that the market agreed with him," they said.

The popularity of the ancient statue was highly anticipated with as many as five different bidders, three on the telephone and two in the room, competing for the sculpture. The triumphant buyer of the ancient Mesopotamia piece was identified as an English buyer who wished to remain anonymous. The previous record holder for the highest price for a sculpture at auction was at 29.1 million dollars and set last month at Sotheby's in New York by Picasso's "Tete de Femme (Dora Maar)." Another previous contender for the highest priced at auction was paid at 28.6 million dollars for "Artemis and the Stag," a 2,000-year-old bronze figure which sold also at Sotheby's in New York in June. It once held the record for the most expensive antiquity to be sold at auction.

Sotheby's described The Guennol Lioness created around 5,000 years ago -- around the same time as the first known use of the wheel -- in the region of ancient Mesopotamia as diminutive in size, but monumental in conception. The ancient piece was acquired by private collector Alastair Bradley Martin in 1948 and has been on display in New York's Brooklyn Museum of Art ever since.

Pre-1905 Rolls-Royce sets two new records

The beautiful ancient piece of work was built in 1904, car 20154. The small 10 horsepower open-topped two-seater was the fourth vehicle produced by the landmark cooperation between Charles Rolls and Henry Royce and the oldest one still running. As the world's oldest surviving Rolls-Royce, the car managed to sets two new records on Monday when a private British collector paid 3.5 million pounds ($7.22 million) for it at auction. This marks the oldie but goodie car as the most anyone has paid for a car dating back to pre-1905 and also the most anyone has paid for a Rolls-Royce.

"They opened the bidding at one million and it soared from there. In the end it came down to a battle between two telephone bidders," a spokeswoman for auction house Bonhams said. The previous records for a veteran car included the 1.76 million pounds paid for an 1884 De Dion Bouton and a Rolls-Royce for 1.48 million pounds paid for a 1912 Silver Ghost Double Pullman Limousine.

Faberge Egg fetches record breaking $18.5 mil at London auction

The exquisitely formed and first commissioned by Russian Czar Alexander III commissioned elaborate egg from craftsman Peter Carl Faberge as an Easter gift for his wife, Empress Maria Fedorovnahas has fetched the record breaking princely sum of $18.5 million at a London auction Wednesday. The rare enamel-and-gold Faberge egg had been a keepsake for the Rothschild banking family for more than a century. The Rothschild Faberge Egg is one of no more than 12 such pieces known to have been made to imperial standards for private clients, Christie's said.

The Faberge Egg which is a translucent pink egg topped with a diamond-studded cockerel is also now famous for breaking the previous record for a Faberge work of art, Christie's auction house said. The price also broke the record for Russian artwork, excluding paintings, easily beating the $9.6 million paid for a Faberge egg in New York in 2002, Christie's said.