$104.3 million
The price paid for the Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) sculpture L’homme qui marche I (Walking Man I), at a Sotheby’s sale in London in February, set a world record for a work of art at auction. The high bid for the piece, the only life-time cast of this subject ever to have come to auction, eclipsed the $104.2 million paid for Pablo Picasso’s Garçon à la pipe at a Sotheby’s New York sale in 2004. L’homme qui marche I was part of the Dresdner Bank’s corporate collection before Commerzbank took over Dresdner last year. Commerzbank reportedly will direct the proceeds from the sale to its new Foundation Centre, the bank’s charitable arm, and to various museums for restoration projects and educational programs.

During the same London sale, the Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) landscape Kirche in Cassone (Church in Cassone) sold for $43.2 million. The painting initially belonged to Austro-Hungarian iron magnate and collector Viktor Zuckerkandl. It went missing in Vienna during the Nazi occupation and resurfaced after the end of World War II. The European collector who consigned the painting to Sotheby’s did so in accordance with an agreement between him and the 81-year-old great-nephew of the painting’s original owner.

$4.6 million
The highest-priced lot at a Christie’s old masters and 19th-century art sale in February in New York was The Entrance to the Turkish Garden Café by Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761–1845). The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles acquired the painting for a price that was the highest ever paid at auction for a work by this artist. 

Also at this auction, the recently rediscovered painting Diana and Callisto, by Italian artist Gaetano Gandolfi (1734–1802), sold to a private collector for $4.1 million. The large-scale oil on canvas is believed to be one of two paintings that Russian prince Nicholai Yusupov (1751–1831) commissioned from Gandolfi. Unbeknownst to art scholars, the painting had been in a private American collection for the last 50 years.

$11,590
One of the more intriguing lots at Bonhams’ annual dog art sales, in February in New York, wasn’t a work of art; it was a dog collar, a 19th-century leather-and-brass collar that belonged to Charles Dickens. The collar has a nameplate inscribed with "C. Dickens Esq / Gad’s Hill Place / Higham."

Apparently, Dickens shared his home with quite a few canines. In the Atlantic in 1870, shortly after Dickens’ death, James T. Fields wrote, "All animals which he took under his especial patronage seemed to have a marked affection for him. Quite a colony of dogs has always been a feature at Gad’s Hill. When Dickens returned home from his last visit to America, these dogs were frequently spoken of in his letters. In May, 1868, he writes: ‘As you ask me about the dogs, I begin with them. The two Newfoundland dogs coming to meet me, with the usual carriage and the usual driver, and beholding me coming in my usual dress out at the usual door, it struck me that their recollection of my having been absent for any unusual time was at once cancelled. They behaved (they are both young dogs) exactly in their usual manner, coming behind the basket phaeton as we trotted along and lifting their heads to have their ears pulled—a special attention which they receive from no one else. But when I drove into the stable yard, Linda (the St. Bernard) was greatly excited, weeping profusely, and throwing herself on her back so that she might caress my foot with her great forepaws. M.’s little dog, too, Mrs. Bouncer, barked in the greatest agitation, on being called down and asked, Who is this? tearing round and round me like the dog in the Faust outlines.’ "

The dog art sale’s highest price, $482,000, went to The Bitchpack of the Meath Foxhounds, a 44-by-62-inch oil-on-canvas painting by acclaimed dog artist John Emms (1843–1912). Emms, a flamboyant figure who often dressed in a long, black cloak and a matching wide-brimmed hat, was a huntsman as well as an artist. He owned a pack of hounds that served as the models for the preliminary sketches of his compositions.

$96,000
A 1932 Studebaker St. Regis Brougham, restored and upgraded with such modern amenities as air-conditioning, a CD player, and an automatic transmission, accounted for the highest bid among the collectible cars at a Silver Auctions sale in January in Fort McDowell, Ariz. The top bid overall was $166,000, for a 2004 Maybach 62. Other highlights of the auction were a fully restored 1963 Jaguar E-Type, which fetched $75,000, and an award-winning customized 1956 Chevrolet with a big-block 427, which sold for $71,000.

$11,875
The highest-priced lot at Doyle New York’s first-ever fine jewelry auction, in February, was a pair of diamond stud earrings. Each 2.16-carat princess-cut diamond is set in 18-karat white gold.

$797,500
A 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Pininfarina Series II was the priciest lot at Russo and Steele’s annual auction in Scottsdale, Ariz., in January. Ferrari built only 200 examples of the cabriolet, and this one was number 14 out of the factory. The car recently underwent a complete restoration.

$46,000
A Washington Redskins game jersey worn by Hall of Fame quarterback Sammy Baugh circa 1940 proved to be the main attraction of a Hunt Auctions football memorabilia sale in February. Baugh, who began playing for the Redskins in 1937, helped to evolve pro football into a passing game. Over the course of his 16-year career, Slingin’ Sammy won a record-setting six NFL passing titles and earned first-team All-NFL honors seven times.

According to the accompanying letter of provenance, the collar was torn when Baugh wore this jersey in a game against the Boston Yanks in either 1947 or 1948. After the game, Baugh discarded the jersey, and Don Williams, who worked in the Redskins’ front office, picked it out of a receptacle in the locker room. Williams gave the jersey to a friend’s son, who had it mounted and framed and kept it for more than 60 years before consigning it to Hunt Auctions.

Other highlights of the sale included a circa 1970–73 Joe Namath New York Jets game jersey, which sold for $27,000, and a Los Angeles Rams helmet worn by Norm Van Brocklin in the 1950s, which sold for $24,000.

$310,700
An illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith (1863–1935) from a 1905 printing of A Child’s Garden of Verses, a collection of children’s poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, garnered the highest price at Heritage Auction Galleries’ illustration art sale in February. The bid topped the previous record price for one of Smith’s works by more than $40,000.

During the same sale, one of Alberto Vargas’ (1896–1982) World War II–era Varga Girls pinup posters, which he drew for Esquire magazine, sold for $101,575. The circa 1947 watercolor on poster board, titled Duotone Varga Signature, became the first Varga Girl to break the six-figure threshold. The poster had a presale estimate of $30,000 to $40,000.

Among the auction’s paperback book cover art offerings, the top attractions were Rudy Nappi’s Reefer Girl from 1953 ($26,290, five times the previously highest price paid for a Nappi painting), Barbara Remington’s 1965 Ballantine edition of The Lord of the Rings ($35,850), and Richard Powers’ Wine of the Dreamers from 1971 ($31,070).

$25,428
At a February Sotheby’s London sale of fine and rare wine featuring a selection of large-format bottles, a Melchior bottle of 2006 Château Cheval Blanc St. Emilion 1er Grand Cru Classé drew the highest bid. The lot was one of only 10 such bottles of this vintage, and the selling price was more than three times greater than the presale estimate.

$120,000
As evidenced by the box-office receipts of the last installment of the film franchise, Batman’s appeal isn’t waning. Nor is that of his car, judging from the price paid at a Kruse International auction in January in Miami for a 1966 Batmobile that was built and used as a promotional display for the television series. At that same auction, an extensively restored 1964 Chevrolet Corvette convertible powered by a 425 hp V-8 sold for $45,000.

$468,000
The highlight of an American and European paintings and prints auction at Skinner’s Boston gallery in January was a circa 1966 Arnaldo Pomodoro artist’s proof of Rotante primo sezionale n. 1 (Rotating First Section No. 1). Also drawing great interest and a high bid was a recently rediscovered Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) painting, Alligator Pear in White Dish, which sold for $225,150, far more than its presale estimate of $150,000.