1912 Oldsmobile car speeds off for $3.3M
A 1912 Oldsmobile Limited – one of only 140 built and the only example known to have survived its century of existence – sold for $3.3 million at an auction held Feb. 25 by RM Auctions and Sotheby’s. The immaculately restored car cost around $6,300 new – a princely sum, considering the most expensive Model T at the time only cost around $900. The Olds was built and marketed as a high-end luxury car. It was massive, at 7 feet tall and 17 feet long, and was powered by a powerful 60hp, six-cylinder engine.

The car was painted dark blue, with a straw pinstripe accent. The body style and interior had unique coachwork. The sale price was a record for an Oldsmobile, barely nosing out an F-88 concept car that brought $3.24 million at Barrett-Jackson in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2006. The RM/Sotheby’s auction was held in Boca Raton, Fla. The Olds Limited was part of the private museum of classic cars and other collectibles owned by Bob and Paul Milhous. Also sold was a custom-built merry-go-round that fetched $1.3 million.

Washington boyhood drawing – is it authentic?
Ten years ago, Tom Lingenfelter, president of the Heritage Collectors’ Society in Doylestown, Pa., was at an auction and one of the items up for bid was a postcard-sized sketch of a sailboat purportedly drawn by George Washington – at age 10. The drawing was signed “Geo. Washington, March 12th, 1742.” The provenance was wobbly to say the least. The seller, whose father had obtained the drawing around 1950, even warned Lingenfelter it might be a forgery. But nobody else really wanted it, so Tom bought it for $500.

Lingenfelter had his new purchase analyzed by forensics experts and, much to his surprise, they dated the paper and ink to Washington’s lifetime. Then he began researching the handwriting on the sketch and comparing it to copy books held in the National Archives and penmanship examples dating from Washington’s school days, when the teenager was trained in surveying and map making. The similarities were consistent and striking. The bottom line: if it’s authentic, the drawing could fetch a small fortune at auction.

Mona Lisa – she had a twin sister all along!
For decades, the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain has shown a portrait bearing a very close resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece The Mona Lisa, but it was always assumed to be a mediocre 16th- or 17th-century copy of the original. That’s because the subject (long believed to be Lisa Gherardini del Gioncodo, a wealthy silk merchant’s wife from Florence, and who da Vinci himself called “La Gioncodo”) appeared in front of a plain black backdrop – not the Tuscan countryside of the Louvre’s version.

But that was before restorers working on the copy discovered that the dark layers of paint surrounding The Mona Lisa obscured a landscape that’s nearly identical to the original’s background. Also, as infrared tests revealed, stretch marks (known as underdrawings) mirrored those on da Vinci’s canvas, suggesting the painter of the replica worked alongside the famous Renaissance master. So it appears The Mona Lisa has a twin sister, and it’s thought she was done by either Francesco Melzi or Andrea Salai, students of da Vinci.

World’s most expensive Cognac to be auctioned
Dutch collector Bay Van der Bunt (shown) is selling 5,000 unopened bottles of spirits believed to be worth around $7.5 million, and in the group is a 1795 Cognac made in Brugerolle, France that accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte into battle. The hand-blown, six-liter Jeroboam bottle, the last of its kind known, is worth close to $200,000, making it easily the most expensive bottle of Cognac in existence. Also in the collection is a Courvoisier & Curlier worth $60,000. It was distilled from grapes picked in 1789, the year of the French Revolution.

Speaking of alcohol, pawnbrokers in the U.S. have begun accepting fine wine, along with jewels and fine art, as collateral for loans on behalf of wealthy (but cash-strapped) clients – mainly hedge fund managers, bankers, lawyers, doctors and even famous celebrities. A British-based pawnbroker, borro.com, with an office in New York, recently lent $120,000 in exchange for 128 bottles of Chateau d’Yquem (the golden Sauternes were worth $250,000). Borro.com also took a case of 1989 Chatreau Petrus worth $38,000 for a loan of $24,000.

Mattel issues Will and Kate anniversary dolls
Mattel, Inc., has issued a special two-doll set of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka Prince William and Kate Middleton) on the one-year anniversary of their marriage, which was seen on TV by an estimated 3 billion people worldwide. The couple are wearing tiny versions of what they had on when they tied the knot: for Will, a red Irish Guards outfit with a blue sash; for Kate, a traditional white dress and veil, with a tiny tiara like the diamond-studded one she borrowed from Queen Elizabeth. The price for the pair: $100.

$3 Goodwill painting brings $190K at auction
About two years ago, a South Carolina man walked into a Goodwill store in Anderson, S.C., and paid $3 for a painting that he hoped to sell on the Internet for $100. But his daughter-in-law had a hunch it might be worth more, so she brought it to a taping segment of TV's Antiques Roadshow, where it was appraised at $20,000-$30,000. Elated, the man consigned the painting – which turned out to be a Flemish artwork from around 1650 – to John McInnis Auctioneers in Amesbury, Mass., where it fetched a dizzying $190,000. Not bad for a $3 buy!

Desk used by FDR going to Hyde Park
The 300-pound walnut executive desk used by Franklin Roosevelt in the 1920s while he was an executive at a Maryland-based insurance company has been donated to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum in Hyde Park, N.Y., where FDR lived much of his adult life. The donation was made by Zurich American Insurance Company, which long ago acquired Fidelity & Deposit Company, where FDR worked from 1921-28. Zurich had been exhibiting the desk at its U.S. headquarters outside Chicago, in Schaumberg, Ill.

Roosevelt took the job at Fidelity & Deposit after his unsuccessful run for vice president in 1920, as James Cox’s running mate. He worked in the New York office, at 120 Broadway, and it was during this period he contracted polio. Still, mainly due to the many business and government contacts he made while Secretary of the Navy, FDR succeeded in boosting F&D’s surety business. He left the company in 1928 to begin serving his two terms as governor of New York, before serving a record four terms as president.

Dentist hopes to unlock secrets of Great Pyramid
A Hong Kong dentist has invented a forceps-like tool that may help archaeologists answer a question that has puzzled them for decades: what lies behind the doors blocking two narrow shafts in the Great Pyramid of Giza, the tomb of the Pharaoh Cheops (also known as Khufu)? Ng Tze-chuen, 59, who has designed or invented 70 dental tools, has come up with a tiny gripping tool that will be mounted on a robot the size of an insect that will navigate the winding shafts of the pyramid without damaging the walls.

A tiny camera will be fitted to the robot, sending back photos of what it sees. The two shafts rise from a chamber in the pyramid, and their doors have mystified researchers since their discovery in 1872. Some archaeologists believe Khufu’s burial chamber lies beyond the doors. The effort using Tze-chen’s device will be undertaken this spring. The Great Pyramid is the largest and oldest of the three pyramids at Giza. It is 482 feet tall and was completed about 2,500 B.C. It is the only survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Kurt Cobain "KISS" van falls short in sale
A 1972 Dodge Sportsman van featuring a drawing on the side of the rock band “KISS” by the late grunge rock icon Kurt Cobain was pulled from an auction on eBay because it failed to meet the reserve bid of $150,000. Bidding did go as high as $99,999.99, but that's where it stopped. The van was never actually owned by Cobain or his band Nirvana, but it was the first touring vehicle used by the group The Melvins, an alternative rock band from Montesano, Wash. Cobain supposedly drew the members of “KISS” on the van using stolen Sharpie pens.

John Wilkes Booth bobblehead doll??
Yes, such a thing exists, and he's even holding a pistol! But get this: the dolls were being sold at The Gettysburg Museum and Visitors Center bookstore, as a gag gift, before a local paper and some historians and scholars called into question the good taste, or lack thereof, in selling such an item. As a result, they were pulled from the store's shelves pronto, a fact that probably makes them more desirable as a collectible. But, as one Lincoln scholar rightly pointed out, “It's like selling Lee Harvey Oswald stuffed dolls at the Kennedy Center.”

Etch A Sketches see spike in sales
When Mitt Romney strategist Eric Fehrnstrom was asked about the candidate's politics in the spring versus the fall, he replied “It's like an Etch A Sketch. You can shake it up and start all over again.” Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum pounced on the remark, and held up Etch a Sketches at campaign rallies, much to the delight of Ohio Art Co., makers of the venerable (but decidedly low-tech) toy. As a result, sales of the toy spiked, the company's stock price tripled (to $9.65 a share) and Ohio Art sent a box of Etch A Sketches to Romney as a gesture of thanks.

Huge hoard of Roman coins found in Britain
Archaeologists digging just 450 feet from the famed Roman Baths in Great Britain have stumbled on the fifth largest hoard of ancient coins ever discovered in the UK – 30,000 silver coins dating from the mid-3rd century. The coins were fused together in a large block – making counting and identifying them one-by-one difficult to conservators at the British Museum, which is analyzing the trove (a process that will take about a year). The dig was initially undertaken in 2008, at the site of the proposed Gainsborough Hotel.

The Roman Baths has launched an appeal to raise about $250,000 to purchase, conserve and display the coins. The trove is being called the “Beau Street Horde,” after the street on which it was discovered. The largest collection of Roman coins ever unearthed in a single container was found in April 2010 by David Crisp, a hospital chef, who located a stash of 52,503 coins using a simple metal detector. Those coins, dating from 253-293 A.D., were valued at nearly $500,000 and are now on display at England's Museum of Somerset.

19th-C Champagne being sold at auction
Eleven bottles of antique Champagne found at the bottom of the Baltic Sea by divers in 2010 are being sold at auction June 8 by the government of Aland, a string of islands off the coast of Finland. The bottles – part of a total cache of 145 bottles of beer and Champagne – date to around 1841-1850. Two bottles from the haul have already sold at auction. One of them, a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, went for $46,360 at the New York auction firm Acker, Merrall & Condit. It was a new record price for a bottle of Champagne.

The June 8 sale will be conducted in France, at the Artcurial, Briest-Poulain-F. Tajan auction house. Featured will be four bottles of Veuve Clicquot, one bottle of Heidsieck & Co., and six bottles of Juglar, a Champagne maker that ceased operation in 1829. The bottles had spent the last 150+ years undisturbed, about 150 feet deep in the Baltic Sea. Temperatures there were a convenient 39-43 degrees Fahrenheit – perfect wine cellar conditions. Sales from the auction will go to benefit maritime archaeological research.

Fuller Brush Co. files for bankruptcy
Quick, what do Dick Clark, Joe DiMaggio, the Rev. Billy Graham and Dennis Quaid all have in common? They all worked as door-to-door Fuller Brush salesmen as young men. It may come as a surprise to baby boomers who remember the Fuller Brush man coming to their door that the brushes, brooms and cleaning products firm is still in business. It is...but barely. The company, based in Great Bend. Kan., has filed for bankruptcy protection and hopes to remain alive despite sagging sales and fading brand name recognition.

But it wasn't always that way. The Fuller Brush man was so ubiquitous in World War II-era America and afterward that a movie starring Red Skelton (shown), titled The Fuller Brush Man, was a hit in 1948. The company was launched in 1906 by Alfred C. Fuller, who marketed his line of personal care and household cleaning products through an army of door-to-door salesmen. The phrase “I'm your Fuller Brush man” became part of the American vernacular. The firm is trying to stay afloat online and via partnering with retailers.

Woman has 1,000 My Little Ponies
A woman living in Yorkshire, England owns an astounding 1,000 My Little Ponies – the brightly colored horses from the 1980s – in a collection thought to be worth more than $31,000. Sarah Butler, 29, keeps the ponies in a “pony room” in her home. The room is also decked out with stuffed My Little Pony curtains, a bedspread, a lamp shade and the all-important pink and blue My Little Pony Dream Castle. Her father built custom wooden shelves to hold the ponies. Ms. Butler began collecting My Little Ponies as a child.

Superman's first check up for bid
At press time, the very check that DC Comics cut to the creators of Superman for exclusive rights to the Man of Steel more than 70 years ago was still up for bid in an online auction hosted by ComicConnect.com and Metropolis Collectibles. Bidding had topped the $20,000 mark, with the sale slated to end April 16. The check, in the amount of $412, was issued to Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Superman's co-creators. It includes a line item for $130 showing that DC was entitled to all TV, film and comic book rights.

Siegel and Shuster dreamed up the idea for Superman while still teenagers living in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1930s. The character was first introduced to comic book fans in 1938, with Action Comics No. 1, still considered one of comic book collecting's Holy Grails. The check had been saved by a DC Comics staffer, whose heirs consigned it to CommicConnect. It had sat, undisturbed, in a drawer for nearly 40 years. The case can be made that, without that check, there would be no Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman or Spider Man.