VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian can now fly in first class anywhere in the world for free, after he bought a $170 million painting. Liu Yiqian won a bidding war for "Reclining Nude" painting at Christie's auction in New York earlier this month. "Reclining Nude" was painted between 1917 and 1918 by an Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

A 16.08 carat rare pink diamond sold for more than $28.55 million (28.73 million Swiss francs) at Christie's Geneva Magnificent Jewel sale. The largest cushion shaped vivid pink diamond in the auction was purchased by a Chinese client based in Hongkong. The private buyer dubbed the diamond as "The Sweet Josephine".

With an Atlantic tailwind from May auctions in New York in which the two biggest auction houses sold more than $2 billion of art, eyes are focused on major sales beginning next week in London that may see prices soar again to dizzying heights.

A Picasso oil painting from 1955 smashed the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it soared to $179.4 million at Christie's on Monday.

With prices for top-tier works of art at an all-time high, records for paintings and sculpture appear certain to fall at upcoming spring auctions in New York by Christie's and Sotheby's.

Going, going, gone! Sold to the highest bidder at the auction, on the phone or on a new eBay platform that will stream Sotheby's New York auctions live beginning next month.

Buying art at Sotheby's (BID.N) will soon become more expensive as the top international auction house announced it is increasing its buyer's premium, the rates it charges a successful bidder.

The London auction scene is gearing up for another big season, with the two biggest auction houses targeting buyers around the world for evening sales in February expected to generate several hundred million pounds.

A fully operational Apple computer that company co-founder Steve Jobs sold out of his parents' garage in 1976 for $600 sold for $365,000 at Christie's on Thursday.

Christie's held the biggest art auction in history on Wednesday, selling $853 million worth of contemporary and post-war art, led by a pair of Andy Warhol works featuring multiple images of Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando.

Auction house Christie's said the value of the 2,781 works collection fully and partially-owned by the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) was around the USD452 million to USD866 million range.

Owners of over USD2 billion artwork to be sold in auction houses like Christie's included hedge-fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen.