Sotheby's has revealed its top selling lots of 2014, detailing the auction house's stunning success following a spate of record sales.
 The auction house witnessed record sales in almost every category |
The top 10 results in terms of value were all seen by works of art, the most valuable being Alberto Giacometti's Chariot, which topped the November Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale at $100m.
The results show strength in the impressionist category, with the top four prices seen by Giacometti, Modigliani, Van Gogh and Monet. Sotheby's also notes the ascent of female artists in the past 12 months, with Georgia O' Keefe's Jimson Weed tripling the previous auction record for a female artist at $44m.
In other categories, Sotheby's saw a new world record for any stamp when the British Guiana 1c Magenta sold for $9.5m in June. It's the most valuable object by size and weight sold in 2014.
The auction house also marked the most valuable timepiece ever sold at auction, with the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication bringing $24m in a much-celebrated sale.
A new world record for the most valuable wine lot came in October, with 114 bottles of Romanee-Conti crossing the block at $1.7m - or $1,700 a glass. Luxury collectibles continued to fare well as the Graff Ruby sold in November at Sotheby's Geneva for $8.6m - the world auction record for a ruby.
The lot that sold for the highest sum above high estimate at Sotheby's was Mark Rothko's Untitled, which made $39.9m, almost double its valuation of $20m.
The lot that attracted the most bids was a silver matchbox holder given to Winston Churchill as a Christmas present, which sold for £68,500 ($107,648), despite being valued at £300-500. 71 bidders competed to own the lot.
See Paul Fraser Collectibles for reviews of the auction year in 2014 covering every category.
