Bonhams Auctions

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Harper Lee Groused About Town Trying to Exploit Her

'They are trying to turn Harper Lee into a tourist attraction like Graceland and Elvis Presley'

(Newser) - To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee railed against her Alabama hometown for trying to exploit her success, registering her complaints in a letter that helps explain later legal battles involving commercialization of her novel. The writer's bitter assessment of Monroeville comes in a three-page letter that's being...

Jackie Kennedy's Love Letters to JFK's Friend Head to Auction

This 'level of intimacy' is rare, says Bonhams rep

(Newser) - Jacqueline Kennedy and David Ormsby Gore met frequently during John F. Kennedy's presidency, even taking shared vacations with their spouses. But by 1967, both were widowed and bonding over their shared loneliness. A year later, their relationship had turned romantic, at least on one side. Ormsby Gore—a close...

Harry Potter Typo Could Make You $34K Richer

First edition copy will be sold in November

(Newser) - It might be time to revisit your old copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. A hardcover first edition of the book, published in 1997, is expected to fetch up to $33,700 (or about 4,585 Galleons ) at a Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts sale in...

Auction Houses Counting on Russians

Buyers prop up industry staggering from economic crunch

(Newser) - With dwindling sales and empty showrooms, art auction houses are increasingly relying on what they have dubbed RR: rich Russians. Houses are hoping the record price drawn by a Kasimir Malevich painting earlier this month is proof that the Russian market will escape the downturn that's affecting other sectors. Of...

Meteorite Hunter Gets His Due
Meteorite Hunter Gets His Due

Meteorite Hunter Gets His Due

He finds fame, maybe fortune, by digging through dust

(Newser) - He’s not exactly Indiana Jones, but Steve Arnold does have fame, wild adventures, and an 18-foot-wide metal detector. Arnold, a meteorite hunter, has combed the deserts of Chile, the tundras of Siberia, and the streets of Chicago looking for the extraterrestrial lumps of metal, the LA Times reports. His...

5 Stories