1 Kings 4:21, 29â34. The Israelites came to King Solomon when they needed help. One day two women came to him with a baby boy. The women said they lived in the same house. They each had a baby, but one of the babies died. Now both women wanted the baby that was alive. Each mother said he was her baby. They wanted King Solomon to tell them who could keep the baby.
The earliest sale on the list below (Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh) is from March 1987; with a price of Â£24.75 million (Â£62.8 million in current value) it tripled the previous record and introduced a new era in top art sales.
(Final prices reported by the auction house for each lot include the buyerâs premium: 25 percent of the first $100,000; 20 percent from $100,000 to $2 million; and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.) For the van Gogh, the work had last sold for $12 million in 2003. The highest price paid for a van Gogh at auction was the $82.5 million paid in 1990 for his âPortrait of Dr. Gachet.â. âThere are very few price points that tell us what this is worth,â Mr. Shaw said in an interview before the sale.