$1.08 million
The price paid for a copy of Detective Comics No. 27, the 1939 comic book issue featuring the first appearance of Batman, became the most valuable comic book ever at a Heritage Auctions sale in February. But it didn’t hold that distinction for long. In a private transaction in March, a copy of Action Comics No. 1, the 1938 comic book that marked the debut of Superman, sold for $1.5 million. In February, three days before the Heritage sale of the Batman comic, another copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold for the then-record price of $1 million.

Overall, the Heritage event garnered sales of $5.6 million, breaking the Guinness World Record for a comics auction of $5.2 million, which Heritage set in 2002, during a sale that included the collection of actor Nicolas Cage.

In addition to the Detective Comics transaction, the Heritage auction also featured the sale, for $179,250, of a Vargas Girl illustration for a 1963 issue of Playboy magazine, and the sale of a copy of Marvel Comics No. 1, from 1939, for $227,050. The original Charles Schulz illustration from a 1966 Snoopy vs. the Red Baron Sunday comic strip sold for $101,575, and a copy of Green Lantern No. 1, from 1960, sold for $50,787. In a 2003 Heritage auction, that same copy sold for just under $19,000.

$211,750
A 1935 Auburn 851 SC convertible sedan was the top seller at RM Auctions’ Collector Cars of Fort Lauderdale event in March in Florida. The Auburn, whose restorations have been well documented, belonged to the estate of car collector John O’Quinn. Another highlight of the auction was the sale of O’Quinn’s meticulously restored 1954 Buick Skylark convertible, for $187,000.

$253,500
Of all the pieces contributing to the $2.6 million in total sales realized during a Skinner jewelry auction in March, the highest priced was a Cartier Art Deco bracelet made of platinum and set with diamonds and onyx. The bracelet, which had a presale estimate of $30,000 to $40,000, belonged to the collection of Hope Goddard Iselin, a resident of New York and Newport, R.I., who, in 1895, became the first woman member of an America’s Cup yacht crew. Iselin also was a noted owner of Thoroughbred racehorses.

The auction also featured the sale of a circa 1856 diamond and enamel demi-parure from the collection of Elizabeth Colt, wife of Colt revolver inventor Sam Colt. The necklace and the matching ear clips were a wedding gift to Elizabeth from Sam. The jewelry had a presale estimate of $25,000 to $30,000 and was purchased by Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts for $201,450.

$42,350
At a sale of the Lloyd Flatt wine collection conducted by Sotheby’s in March in New York, a single Methuselah (a six-liter bottle) of 1976 Romanée-Conti drew the highest bid, from an Asian collector participating by phone. Flatt, who died two years ago, at age 71, was one of the country’s foremost wine collectors. He began collecting in the late 1960s and at one time had amassed some 15,000 bottles in his cellar in New Orleans, including many first-growth Bordeaux. His divorce in 1990 forced him to sell off his collection, but he rebuilt it with a focus on Burgundy. At one time his collection included wine dating from as early as 1861. The sale also included a four-bottle lot of 1947 Bouchard Père et Fils Beaune Grèves Vigne de l’Enfant Jèsus, which fetched just under $1,700.

$16,600
A 1974 AMC Javelin AMX was among the cars purchased at a Silver Auctions sale in March in Portland, Ore. AMC produced fewer than 5,000 examples of the AMX version in 1974, the muscle car’s final year of production. The Javelin became a victim of the OPEC oil embargo, which made high-performance cars less desirable, and was replaced by the AMC Pacer. This car, which is powered by a 401 cu in engine, is a rust-free example with serial numbers–matching parts, and it has traveled fewer than 100 miles since undergoing a complete restoration.

$2.99 million
The sale of Bada Shanren’s Two Mynas on a Rock, circa 1692, set a new record for the price of a classical Chinese painting when it was purchased at a Sotheby’s auction in March in New York. Bada, a Ming loyalist, painted the work in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, which was formed by a foreign Manchu family and came into power in 1644. Mynas are known for their mocking calls, so the choice of them as the painting’s subject has been interpreted as Bada’s demonstrating his disapproval of the new Chinese rulers. Decades earlier, the artist had been forced to flee to a Buddhist temple after his hometown of Nanchang was occupied by Manchus, who at the time were eliminating scholars and artists, whom they saw as threats to their power.

At a separate Sotheby’s sale of Indian and Southeast Asian art, an untitled painting by Manjit Bawa sold for $602,500. It was the most ever paid for a work by this Indian artist, who died in 2008, surpassing the previous record price by more than $150,000.

$1.08 million
At a Doyle New York Asian art sale in March, a 19th-century Chinese jadeite censer measuring just over six inches tall garnered the auction’s highest bid. The censer sold to a buyer from China.

At the same auction, a Hong Kong buyer bid $230,500 on a pair of late-18th-century gilt-bronze figures of attendants that stand 41 inches tall. The lot had a presale estimate price of only $6,000 to $8,000.

$1.7 million
Through a proxy, racing legend Sir Stirling Moss cast the high bid on a 1961 Porsche RS61 Spyder during Gooding & Co.’s inaugural Amelia Island Auction in March in Florida. The 80-year-old Moss, who was injured in an accident at his home a few days earlier, instructed his proxy from a hospital in London, where he was bedridden with two broken ankles. The Porsche is similar to the RS62 in which Moss raced during the 1960s. The RS61 is one of only 14 that Porsche built. The car claimed 13 victories and 20 podium finishes during its prime racing years, from 1961 through 1963.

$41,125
A Yavapai Apache figural olla drew the highest price at a Cowan’s American Indian and Western art auction in March. The olla is coiled with 53 figurines, including people, dogs, and deer. Another highlight of the auction was a Cheyenne beaded hide tobacco bag, which sold for $17,918, nearly double its presale estimate price. The bag is sewn with sinew and features beads of seven different colors.

$64,837
A 12-bottle case of 1988 Romanée-Conti consigned from a French collector was the top lot at a Bonhams wine auction in London in March. (The case generated a bid of 42,550 British pounds.) Wines from the Romanée-Conti vineyard in the Burgundy region of France are considered among the world’s finest, and it is extremely rare to find a complete case of a dozen bottles. This case was still sealed with its metal banding until a Bonhams official opened it for inspection.