• New auction record established for Antonio Canova, the great Neoclassical sculptor, when his long-lost ‘Bust of Peace’ sells for £5.3 million / $7 million.
AUGUST
• A new record for the most valuable car ever sold at auction: RM Sotheby’s sells Ferrari 250 GTO for $48.4 million, at $158 million Monterey sale.
SEPTEMBER
• The most valuable painting sold by any auction house in Hong Kong: Zao Wou-Ki’s Juin-Octobre 1985 sells for HK$510 million / $65 million.
• ‘Yellow Ball: The Frank and Lorna Dunphy Collection’, an auction celebrating one of the most extraordinary art world collaborations of our times – that of Damien Hirst and his business manager, mentor and ‘partner in crime’, Frank Dunphy – brings total of £10.4 million / $13.7 million.
• ‘Cinématographe Lumière’, the world’s first film poster, sells for £160,000 in online-only sale of Original Film Posters.
OCTOBER
• The highest total for any sale of house contents at Sotheby’s France: the sale of the contents of Pierre Bergé’s last residences – Rue Bonaparte, Mas Théo, Villa Mabrouka, La Datcha – totals €27.5 million / $31.3 million. The two-day auction is 100% sold, with 95% of lots surpassing their pre-sale high-estimates.
• A new auction record for any living female artist: Jenny Saville’s Propped sells for £9.5 million / $12.4 million. The painting was one of 50 artworks sold in Sotheby’s Frieze Week sales from the collection of art world luminary David Teiger.
• World auction record for a single bottle of wine of any size: two exceptional bottles of Romanée Conti 1945 sell for $558,000 and $496,000, respectively. The wines were offered as part of a 'white-glove' (100% sold) auction of rare Domaine de la Romanée-Conti emerging from the personal cellar of Robert Drouhin, which totaled $7.3 million – more than five times its high estimate.
• The copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence carried into court by the judge presiding over most celebrated obscenity trial in British literary history, sells for £56,250 / $71,809, establishing an auction record for a Penguin paperback.

• An exceptional early Iznik charger sells for £5.4 million / $6.9 million following a 20-minute bidding battle – quadruple the previous record for Iznik pottery and among the four highest prices for any Islamic work of art.
• Creating a Stage: The Collection of Marsha and Robin Williams achieves $6.1 million, exceeding its high estimate of $4.6 million. The 300+ works spanned the diverse interests and careers of the beloved entertainer and his wife of 20 years, film producer and philanthropist Marsha Garces Williams.
• The most valuable wristwatch sold at auction in Asia: Patek Philippe Pink Gold Ref 2499 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Wristwatch with Moon Phases achieves HK$23.5 million / $3 million.
• In October we announced the launch of Sotheby’s Home, an online consignment marketplace specializing in vintage and antique furniture, decorative objects and accessories. Sotheby’s Home connects collectors and design lovers with an approachable new platform to buy furniture, art and home décor from showrooms, dealers, interior designers and private individuals.
NOVEMBER
• A billion dollar week of auctions at Sotheby’s worldwide: 1,675 lots sold across 12 sales in New York, Geneva, London and Paris. 19 lots exceed $10 million, 10 lots exceed $20 million.
• René Magritte’s record-breaking Surrealist masterpiece, Le Principe du Plaisir (The Pleasure Principle) – a portrait of the artist’s patron Edward James – leads Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art and sells for $26.8 million following a seven-way bidding battle.
• Historic record for a sale of Royal jewels: 100 Treasures from the Bourbon Parma Family are 100% sold for CHF 53.5 million / $53.1 million. Queen Marie Antoinette’s pearl sells for CHF 36.4 million / $36.2 million, tripling the previous auction record for a natural pearl.
• The most valuable wristwatch ever sold at Sotheby’s: “The Asprey” sets a record for a Patek Philippe Reference 2499 at CHF 3.9 million / $3.9 million.
• The largest single transaction at Sotheby’s Wine Retail worldwide: collection of Methuselahs of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti 2005 sells for HK$11.8 million / US$1.5 million at Sotheby’s Wine Retail in Hong Kong.
• Boundless India, Sotheby’s inaugural auction in Mumbai achieves a total of INR 55.40 crores / US$ 7.9 million, led by seminal works by Tyeb Mehta and Amrita Sher-Gil.
• Sotheby’s inaugural watches sale in the Middle East totals $2.6 million in Dubai.
• Sotheby’s holds its first Japanese Art sale in over a decade and achieves a world auction record for an Imperial Presentation work of art from the Meiji period with a pair of magnificent lacquer screens, which sell for £730,000 / $954,475.
• The Hermès Handbags & Accessories Online sale encompasses over 100 lots from a single private collection assembled over the course of a lifetime, and features silk scarves, jewellery, clothing, riding boots and hats, as well as limited edition handbags including several of famed Kelly and Birkin design.
DECEMBER

• Rare oil sketch by Rembrandt measuring just over ten inches sells for £9.5 million ($12.1 million), the equivalent of £118,362 per square inch.