'For the Love of God'
Price: $100 million
Sold For: Asking price to an investment group including the artist
Controversial artist Damien Hirst has pickled sharks and other animals in formaldehyde, but his decision to cover an old skull in platinum and diamonds may turn out not to have been one of his smartest moves. Hirst attempted to sell it for $100 million. Finding no single collector to pick it up, the skull sold to an investment group, of which Hirst is a member, for the full $100 million.
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· Shaquille O'Neal's House
Price: $29 million
Sold For: Not sold
Basketball player Shaquille O'Neal has been trying to sell his home on Miami's prestigious Star Island off and on since 2005.The home has eight bedrooms, an indoor basketball court, gym, steam room and sauna. The 2.5-acre grounds include a tennis court, six-car garage, dock, two-bedroom guest house and Shaq's pool, complete with Superman logo. He has chopped a few million off the price but may have to go a bit lower if he wants to sell in the depressed real estate market.
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· 'The Wheat Fields' by Van Gogh
Price: Estimated between $28 to $35 million
Price: Estimated between $28 to $35 million
Sold For: UnknownUsually
Van Gogh is a hot seller at auctions by the big auction houses, but that wasn't the case at the Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern art sale in November 2007. Van Gogh's 'The Fields (Wheat Fields)' was estimated to bring in between $28 million and $35 million, but bidding stalled out at $25 million and the painting did not sell. In the days after the auction, shares of Sotheby's stock fell sharply because of the embarrassment.
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· Lesotho Promise Diamonds
Price: $50 million
Price: $50 million
Sold For: Not sold
The huge 603-carat Lesotho Promise rough diamond was bought by diamond dealer Laurence Graff in 2006 for $12.36 million, with the hopes of making a huge profit. Graff had the stone cut into 26 smaller diamonds. Graff is looking to sell the stones to a single buyer, and recently he had all the stones set into one blockbuster necklace which went on display in Monte Carlo. No word on what the price for the necklace is yet, but this will guarantee that they will be sold in a set, which was Graff's desire all along.
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· Portrait by Picasso
Price: Estimated to sell for $60 million
Price: Estimated to sell for $60 million
Sold For: Not sold
Andrew Lloyd Webber planned to put his Picasso portrait, 'Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto,' up for auction in 2006, but the painting was pulled due to a dispute by a man named Julius Schoeps, who claims that the painting was lost by his family in a 'forced sale' by Nazis. The painting was to be sold to benefit Lloyd Webber's philanthropic efforts. In late 2007, the lawsuit was dismissed, so this painting will likely get a second chance at sale soon.