Record-setting Star Wars toy rockets Hake’s to $2M auction result

Front and back views of Star Wars Boba Fett J-slot rocket-firing prototype action figure, with J-shape slot clearly visible on back. Graded AFA 85+ NM+ in AFA Archival case, conveyed with CIB COA, letter of provenance from noted Star Wars expert Brian Rachfal, and LOAs from Kenner technician John R. Howison (original owner) and Tom Tumbusch of Tomart Publications. Sold for $185,850. Hake’s image

YORK, Pa. – Hake’s, America’s first auction house specializing exclusively in pop culture memorabilia, has rewritten the history books yet again with their $185,850 sale of an elusive Star Wars action figure. Finishing at the top of Hake’s Nov. 6-7 online-only auction, the Boba Fett J-slot rocket-firing prototype came with a storied history that began at the 1979 New York Toy Fair. Although the figure made its debut there, it never actually saw production, making it exceedingly rare. According to Hake’s president Alex Winter, its astronomical selling price is a world auction record for any Star Wars toy. The fully illustrated catalogs can be viewed on LiveAuctioneers.

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Moran’s stocks finest in 20th century art & design sale Nov. 19

Mary Corse (b. 1948 American) ‘Untitled,’ from the ‘Grey Light Grid Series,’ 1988, glass microspheres in acrylic on artist specific trapezoid canvas. Estimate: $50,000-$70,000. Moran’s image

MONROVIA, Calif. – Moran’s 20th Century Art + Design auction on Tuesday, Nov. 19, is filled with an exciting mix of works from the century’s most covetable artists and craftsmen. Moran’s is also including a selection of masterworks from the century’s leading Mexican silversmiths consigned from the Cindy Tietze-Hodosh and Stuart Hodosh collection in the catalog. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.

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Miami Beach style packaged in online auction Nov. 19  

Estate platinum GIA Ceylon sapphire and diamond ring, mid-20th century. Estimate: $4,500-$5,500. Jasper52 image

NEW YORK – Two hundred lots of “Jewelry and Decorative Arts Inspired by Miami Beach” are available in a Jasper52 online auction to be held Tuesday, Nov. 19. Victorian-era estate jewelry, sterling silver serving pieces and flatware sets, and rare wristwatches are featured. Bid absentee or live online exclusively through LiveAuctioneers.

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Detroit museum to showcase Bruegel’s ‘The Wedding Dance’

‘The Wedding Dance,’ 1566, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Netherlandish; oil on wood panel. Detroit Institute of Arts

DETROIT – The Detroit Institute of Arts invites visitors to experience an exhibition that explores how science and technology are used to learn about art, focused on one of the DIA’s most iconic European paintings. “Bruegel’s The Wedding Dance Revealed” will be open from Dec. 14–Aug. 30, 2020. The year 2019 marks the 450th anniversary of artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s death, and to commemorate it, the DIA’s Conservation department and the European Art department collaborated to trace the life of the painting from its creation in 1566 to the present, including the story behind the DIA’s exciting acquisition of the work in 1930. This exhibition is free with museum admission, which is always free for residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties.

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Illustrator Aubrey Beardsley to be feted at Tate Britain

Illustration for Oscar Wilde’s ‘Salome,’ 1893, ‘The Peacock Skirt.’ Stephen Calloway. Photo: © Tate

LONDON – Next spring, Tate Britain will open a major exhibition celebrating the brief but astonishing career of Aubrey Beardsley. Although he died tragically young at the age of just 25, Beardsley’s subversive, sinuous black-and-white images have continued to shock and delight admirers for over a century. Bringing together 200 spectacular works, this will be the largest display of his original drawings in over 50 years and the first exhibition of his work at Tate since 1923.

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