$4.4 MILLION
At the turn of the 20th century, when Giuseppe Figoni was a young boy, his family emigrated to Paris from Piacenza, a small city in northern Italy. By the time he was 14 years old, Figoni was working as a wagon builder’s apprentice, and years later, after returning from the battlefields of World War I, he began a successful business modifying the coachwork of established manufacturers such as Delahaye, Bugatti, Renault, and Alfa Romeo.

Perhaps due to his exposure to military aircraft during the war, Figoni was inspired by the shape of airplanes. As a result, his coachwork began to reflect the principles of aerodynamics and produced the illusion of motion, even at rest. At the Paris Auto Salon in 1936, Figoni and his business partner, Ovidio Falaschi, shook up the automotive world by unveiling a Delahaye 135 that boasted elliptical shapes, effectively becoming the first of Figoni’s teardrop designs. Two years later, the Italian team unveiled another attention-grabbing model, this time a 1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C SS Teardrop Coupé.

At the Villa d’Este sale hosted by RM Auctions in May, a rare example of that T150 coupé sold for 3,136,000 euros (about $4.4 million). As one of only 10 examples of Talbot-Lago’s short chassis complete with Figoni et Falaschi’s bodywork, the car was distinguished not only by its sweeping lines— which reflected the time period’s devotion to automobiles as an art form—but also by a pair of chrome grilles that hid the front headlamps. Of even greater significance, this particular example was one of only three that included a factory-installed sunroof.

Originally ordered by a Belgian casino director, the car disappeared into storage two years later when Belgium succumbed to German occupation following the blitzkrieg of 1940. The car later was acquired by the Belgian royal family, where it remained until its most recent owners acquired it and enlisted RM Auto Restoration to return it to factory form. Prior to that restoration, the car had been partially disassembled and prepped for an earlier restoration that never materialized. Those circumstances distinguished the car as one of the most original, unrestored examples to surface. As such, the car still retained its original chassis, engine, wooden framework, and the sheet metal that Figoni had used to create his revolutionary teardrop design.

$144,500
As a successful film star with a penchant for fast and powerful vehicles, Steve McQueen had the means necessary to accumulate a significant collection of motorcycles. But when money alone couldn’t get him the bike he wanted, McQueen was not above using his notoriety to sway a reluctant seller. "Steve would apply the pressure if he found something he really wanted," recalls Bud Ekins, McQueen’s longtime friend and the stuntman who performed a memorable motorcycle jump in the 1963 film The Great Escape. "He’d tell the seller, ‘Don’t you want to be able to say you sold your bike to Steve McQueen?’ And it worked."

The producers might have insisted on a stunt double for McQueen’s Nazi-fleeing jump in 1963, but McQueen was a highly accomplished rider and racer and collected many examples of the bikes that he loved. One such example, a 1971 Husqvarna 400 Cross, recently sold for $144,500 at a Bonhams auction of collectors’ motorcycles and related memorabilia in Carmel, Calif.

During the 1970s, before Japanese manufacturers entered the fray, European bike-builders were redefining the market by making lighter and more powerful motorcycles. Sweden’s Husqvarna was the front-runner in the racing bike categories of the time, winning 14 motocross and 24 endurance racing titles over the course of that decade.

By all accounts, the Husky 400 Cross was a demanding and difficult motorcycle to ride well, and the fact that McQueen did so further establishes the late actor’s capabilities on a motorcycle. Aside from a certificate of authenticity, a bill of sale from a McQueen estate auction in 1984—four years after the actor’s death—and the original registration documents, the bike also was presumed to have last been ridden by McQueen, given that a spare spark plug duct taped to the frame also is visible in photos from the 1984 auction—the first time that the bike was no longer in McQueen’s possession.

$657,250
When archaeologists and fossil hunters discovered pieces of dinosaur bone eroding down a South Dakota hillside in 2004, they followed the trail and discovered one of the most complete Triceratops skeletons in existence. The first partial Triceratops skull was discovered outside of Denver in 1887, but this particular skull, which measures seven feet long with 3.5-foot-long horns, was complete as found—a rarity for dinosaur fossils in general. When the entire skeleton was arranged and assembled, it measured 19 feet long from head to tail, 11 feet across and 12 feet tall. For years, it remained on display at The North American Museum of Ancient Life in Utah, but it recently hit the auction block and sold for $657,250 at a Heritage Auctions natural history sale in June.

In most cases, the skull of a dinosaur represents approximately 30 percent of the entire skeleton, which makes this particular Triceratops specimen about 75 percent bone. This skeleton also represents one of the largest uncovered for the species, and while some museums have mounted Triceratops skeletons on display, most are composited from more than one specimen and none are available for private sale. All necessary documentation—preparation methodology, GPS coordinates, bone map, and other data—were included in the sale.

$12.7 MILLION
When the French government feared that Royalists or Bonapartists might attempt to restore the monarchy in 1887, President Jules Grévy ordered the finance ministry to sell at auction most of the former crown jewels, in case anyone should aspire to use them. Not surprisingly, the auction and its 69 lots attracted serious interest from major jewelry firms around the world. Tiffany & Co. purchased 24 lots, including Empress Eugénie’s diamond necklaces; Van Cleef & Arpels purchased Josephine Bonaparte’s diamond tiara; and Peter Carl Fabergé outbid all others for a famous pearl-and-diamond corsage known as "La Regente." Not every piece in the crown jewels collection was auctioned off, however, and the rare pieces that were kept are now on display in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the Paris Museum of Natural History, and the Louvre.

It was well known that Empress Eugénie loved emeralds, yet few lots from the 1887 auction included pieces adorned with them. However, 15 years earlier, a sale of Empress Eugénie’s private collection of jewels included 25 polished pear-shaped emeralds. No individual purchased a majority of them, but some specialists believe that following that sale, 11 of those emeralds were collected to crown a diamond-and-emerald tiara commissioned by Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, a German nobleman and industrial magnate, which he gave to his second wife, Katharina Wassilievna de Slepzoff, around the turn of the 20th century. That tiara, which last came to market at a Sotheby’s sale in Zurich in 1979, recently sold for 11,282,500 Swiss francs (about $12.7 million) at a Sotheby’s sale in Geneva.

Adorned with 11 Colombian emeralds that weigh more than 500 carats, the tiara is not signed and bears no other identifiable markings. However, in 1896, Count Henckel von Donnersmarck commissioned Chaumet, a Parisian jewelry firm, to produce a crown of diamond leaves and ribbons, which was to be accented by either emeralds or pearls. Considering this tiara’s similar accents of laurel leaves, swags, and lily of the valley motifs, some specialists suggest that Chaumet likely was the jeweler responsible for its creation as well.

$815,600
During the late 1950s and into the 1960s, D. Gumbiner Inc., a small Madison Avenue jewelry retailer, catered to a select group of discerning Manhattan clients. The extent of that clientele’s prominence in New York society is reflected by the quality of the pieces that Gumbiner stocked. One such piece, a rare Patek Philippe 18-karat yellow gold perpetual calendar chronograph circa 1960 (Reference 2499), recently sold for 722,500 Swiss francs (about $815,600) at a Sotheby’s sale of important watches. In the mid-20th century, American retailers rarely stocked high-value complicated watches. This particular piece’s movement was stamped "HOX," an American import marking that confirms the watch was made solely for sale in the United States, and likely special-ordered for one of Gumbiner’s most important clients.

Most timepiece experts recognize that Reference 2499 was the most important perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch ever made by Patek Philippe. First unveiled in 1950, the model proved so successful that the Swiss horloger continued to produce it (in four series) until 1985, although reports show that only 349 pieces were made, which averages out to less than 10 wristwatches per year. This particular watch was made during the second series—one that rarely appears at auction— and includes round chronograph pushers and a tachometer scale that appeals to both modern and vintage tastes. This example also boasts clear hallmarks, sharp lugs, and a case with a consistent and warm patina. Complete with a magnifying glass over the date, the watch retains a dial with original enamel preserved as it was the day it left the Gumbiner showroom in 1962.