$32.6 million
A Sotheby’s contemporary art sale in May in New York featured the highest price ever paid at auction for an Andy Warhol self-portrait. At least six bidders competed for the painting, which sold for more than twice its presale estimate price. The painting, done in 1986, is from Warhol’s final series of self-portraits; the artist died in 1987.

At the same auction, a 1961 untitled painting by Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko (1903–1970) sold for $31.4 million, which was well above its presale estimate of $18 million to $25 million.

$70,000
An unrestored 1968 Ford Shelby GT350 was the top lot at Silver Auctions’ DAA Big Sky Collector Car Auction in May. The car, which is candy-apple red with Wimbledon white racing stripes, had 82,000 original miles and only three previous owners when it was sold. At the 2007 national Shelby convention in Salt Lake City, the car received the Peter Brock award from Peter Brock himself, a designer for Carroll Shelby in the mid-1960s. According to the car’s seller, Brock liked this car better than its fully restored competitors because it reminded him of Shelby: driven but well maintained.

$699,000
The top lot at a Skinner American and European paintings and prints sale in May in Boston was At the Grand Prix, by the American artist Childe Hassam (1859–1935). The price was the second highest ever paid for a pastel at auction. The painting, which measures 11½ x 8¼ inches and had been in the same private collection since the late 1940s, is one of fewer than 10 pastels that Hassam made, all from 1887 through 1889, when he was in Paris and studying at the Académie Julian.

Hassam depicted the Paris Grand Prix Day Parade, an annual event that marked the beginning of the horseracing season, in two other small-scale pastels: Watching the Grand Prix, Longchamps (1889) and At the Grand Prix in Paris (1887). In 1887, Hassam created two nearly identical, large-scale oil paintings of the Grand Prix procession. Those paintings are on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.

$191,200
The 1962 oil-on-canvas original of the Bear Facts (A Modest Look; Bearback Rider) pinup, by American artist Gil Elvgren (1914–1980), drew the highest bid at Heritage Auction Galleries’ Illustration Art Auction in May in Beverly Hills, Calif. The painting belonged to the estate of Charles Martignette, and according to Heritage vice president Ed Jaster, of the 4,000 illustrations he owned, Bear Facts was Martignette’s favorite. Jaster also described the work as "the pinnacle of American pinup art."

Elvgren painted advertising illustrations for such companies as Coco-Cola, General Electric, and the Sealy Mattress Co., and he illustrated stories for the Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, and other magazines. But he is best known for the pinup illustrations he created for the calendars produced by the promotional firm Brown & Bigelow. The firm also published works by other artists, such as Norman Rockwell and Cassius Coolidge, who became famous for his paintings of dogs playing poker.

$3.8 million
A 1962 Ferrari 400 Superamerica Cabriolet Pininfarina SWB sold for a world-record price of 2.8 million euros (about $3.8 million on auction day) at RM Auctions’ inaugural Sporting Classics of Monaco sale in May in Monaco. The price was the highest ever paid at auction for a Superamerica. At the same auction, a 1960 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage sold for 2.46 million euros (about $3.34 million), which was the highest auction price ever for a Birdcage.

Also in Monaco, a 1937 BMW 328 MM Buegelfalte that is considered one of the most significant prewar sports racing cars reached a high bid of 4.3 million euros (about $5.8 million) before it was sold for an undisclosed sum in a private sale less than a day after the auction’s conclusion.

$23,000
At Cowan’s Historic Firearms and Early Militaria auction in April, the highest-priced lot was an engraved powder horn from the French and Indian War. The engraving, by Henry Bowers, shows a map of New York and detailed images of ships, buildings, rivers, forts, trees, a windmill, and a man shooting at a deer with his dog nearby.

Another highlight of the auction was a lot containing the uniform and medals of a Rough Rider named George Sharland, who served in Cuba in 1898. The lot sold for $13,800, which was more than triple its presale estimate price, and it also included a copy of Col. Theodore Roosevelt’s 1899 regimental roster of the Rough Riders from the Spanish-American War.

$106,000
At a Skinner auction of clocks, pocket watches, and horological tools and publications in May, at the house’s gallery in Marlborough, Mass., the highest bid went to a circa 1815 nine-month-duration regulator clock. The clock, which was built in Paris by J.J. LePaute, stands just over seven feet tall and has a mahogany case and a full-length glazed glass door. The clock’s presale estimate price was $30,000 to $40,000.

Another highlight of the sale was an early-19th-century rose engine from the Paris shop of A.L. Breguet. It sold for $44,437.50. The engine, a lathe used to create ornamental engravings on clock and watch components, was part of the collection of Ted Crom, a world-renowned authority on horological tools. The auction featured more than 500 items from his collection, which he amassed over a 50-year period.

$1.19 million
At a Bonhams auction in Hong Kong in May, a snuff bottle from the collection of Mary and George Bloch sold for 9.28 million Hong Kong dollars—a world-record price for a snuff bottle. The bottle, which stands shorter than two inches, was made in the 18th century for China’s imperial court. It’s made of copper and features an enamel depiction of a European woman and a child. The image is derived from one displayed on a set of enamel boxes that a French delegation presented to the Chinese imperial court in that same era. Those boxes now belong to the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Another lot in the sale established a new world-record price of 6.03 million Hong Kong dollars (about $774,000) for a jade snuff bottle. The inscribed nephrite-pebble bottle depicts an elderly scholar in a rocky landscape scene. It was produced by the Zhiting School in Suzhou, which is considered the most prestigious of the jade workshops.

$43,750
The highest priced lot at a Doyle New York auction of English and Continental furniture and decorations in May was a George II settee. The settee, which dates from 1745, is made of walnut and features lion masks carved into the armrests and legs. The auction also featured the sale of a circa 1636 Italian Baroque celestial table globe. It sold for $31,250.