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 ...

Over the last 15 years, prices paid at auction houses for paintings, sculptures and other art have skyrocketed, setting ever-higher bars for the most expensive art sold at auctions. Owning art has ...

Over the weekend, during a flurry of major auctions in Geneva, a Patek Philippe 1518 in steel sold for a whopping $17.6 million. That made it the second-most-expensive vintage wristwatch ever sold at ...