On the morning of Oct. 19, 2025, four thieves armed only with angle grinders smashed a second-story window at the Louvre and made off with jewels the museum and French officials describe as “priceless ...

Some items are too exclusive to put a price tag on. Instead, these works are sold at high-end auctions, ultimately purchased for sums unimaginable to most people. For example, in July 2025, the ...

A long-held lesson of economics is that the value of an item is what someone is willing to pay for it. Still, when it comes to auctions, that concept only partially explains the astronomical prices ...

The world’s most expensive substances command their prices for very different reasons. Some, like rare gemstones, are valuable because nature produces them in such limited quantities. Others, such as ...

Each year, Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the top auction houses in the country, put culturally significant blue-chip art from precious art collections up for sale. This year, both auctions took place in ...