$54,990
A 1915-S $50 Panama-Pacific Round garnered the highest price at a Bonhams auction in December in New York. The coin, the largest that the United States Mint has ever produced, features the helmeted head of Minerva on one side and an owl on the other.
An 1851-O $20 sold for $12,285. Although the U.S. Mint produced 315,000 examples of this coin, only a handful of high-grade examples still exist. An exceptional-quality 1878 $3 coin featuring rose and peach highlights fetched $11,700, and a group of seven 1924 $20 coins sold for $11,408.
$185,801
At a Christie’s London auction in December, a circa 1910 portrait of the renowned painter Sir Alfred James Munnings (1878–1959) by Harold Knight (1874–1961) sold for £115,250, which is the equivalent of nearly $186,000. The painting is particularly remarkable because for nearly a century it was hidden beneath the canvas of another painting.
Christie’s specialist Tom Rooth discovered the Munnings portrait while examining Carnaval, a circa 1915 painting by Dame Laura Knight (1877–1970), Harold Knight’s wife. On the back of the painting Rooth saw what looked like the edge of a second canvas, and after removing the nails that held Carnaval in place, he found the portrait of Munnings, who was one of the key exponents of British Impressionism.
It isn’t known how the portrait ended up beneath another painting, but one theory suggests that Harold, because he was jealous of his wife’s affection for Munnings, tried to dispose of the painting, and that Laura recovered it and found a hiding place that remained secret for some 95 years.
$1.5 million
The sale of an ancient Roman marble sarcophagus relief panel with Dionysiac decoration was the highlight of a December auction at Sotheby’s New York.
A Sotheby’s specialist recently determined that the panel once belonged to French writer Émile Zola (1840–1902), a best-selling author and an influential literary figure whose work exemplified what became known as literary naturalism.
Other former owners included French theater actress Cécile Sorel, who apparently had the relief set against her bathtub, and Paul Reynaud, the French politician and head of state who was jailed in 1940 for his opposition to the armistice with Germany.
$7,140
Bonhams conducted a sale of the 3,000-bottle Willard S. Folsom collection of old and rare whiskies in December in New York. Drawing the highest bids were a bottle of Dalmore 50-year-old and a bottle of 1937 Balvenie 50-year-old. Each fetched $7,140.
A bottle of Ardbeg 1974 greatly exceeded its presale estimate of $400 to $500 when it drew a high bid of $5,950. Also among the top attractions was a 1948 Macallan Select Reserve 51-year-old ($3,868) and a 1961 Macallan over-40-year-old ($3,273). The oldest bottle in the sale was a 1924 Royal Brackla 60-year-old, which drew a high bid of $3,570.
$19,120
John Dillinger’s wooden gun sold to the high bidder at a Heritage Auction Galleries sale in December. Dillinger allegedly carved this fake weapon and used it to escape from Lake County Jail in Crown Point, Ind., in 1934. Owners of two other wooden guns claim that theirs are authentic Dillinger items. One of those guns belongs to the John Dillinger Museum in Hammond, Ind., and the other is in the possession of a Dillinger family member.
The Heritage gun also belonged to a member of the Dillinger clan, John’s now 87-year-old younger half-sister, Frances Helen Dillinger Thompson. She inherited it from her brother Hubert (John’s half-brother) when he died, in 1974.
At least two of these three fake guns are, well, fakes, of course. According to Dennis Lowe, Heritage’s director of arms and militaria, the Heritage gun exhibits several details supporting its authenticity. The gun, which is just shy of six inches long, has been blackened by a dye, such as shoe polish, instead of paint, notes Lowe, and it appears to have been made from the leg of a washboard. Both characteristics are consistent with the legend that surrounds the gun. (According to an alternative story, Dillinger carved the gun from a bar of soap.)
Dillinger was sent to Lake County after being arrested in January 1934 in Tucson, Ariz., on charges associated with a Chicago bank robbery in which a police officer was killed. Dillinger escaped in March of that year, wielding the "gun" he had carved. During his escape, he took a real gun from a jail guard and seized a couple of hostages, whom he later released. Less than five months later, FBI agents shot and killed Dillinger outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.
$3.7 million
Dubbed "The Mona Lisa of Rare Coins," the Olsen specimen is considered the second finest of the five known examples of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel. This was the first coin to break the $100,000 price barrier at auction, which it did in 1972; it sold for considerably more at a Heritage Auction Galleries sale in January. (Another 1913 Liberty Head nickel, the Eliasberg specimen, became the first coin to break the $1 million price barrier, in 1996.)
The Olsen nickel was featured in a 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-O appropriately titled "The $100,000 Nickel." The plot involved the theft of the coin, and the Olsen specimen appeared in close-up shots during filming.
Past owners of this coin include namesake Norwegian shipping magnate Fred Olsen, Egypt’s King Farouk I, department store owner Edwin Hydeman, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Texas oilman Reed Hawn, and Dwight Manley, a sports agent, real estate developer, and distributor of the S.S. Central America shipwreck treasure.
$27,025
An album of photographs of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession was the highest-priced lot during a Cowan’s Auctions Americana sale in December. The high bid nearly tripled the album’s presale estimate price.
Containing 97 carte de visite photographs, the album features images of the processional arch in Chicago and of Lincoln’s bedroom in his Springfield home.
$98,500
At Doyle New York’s estate jewelry auction in December, a circa 1926 diamond ring garnered the high bid among all of the lots. The ring features a 7.27-carat old-mine oval diamond set on a platinum band. The large diamond is flanked by two baguette diamonds, each approximately .70 carat, and further accented by 20 small single-cut diamonds.