Scott Reyburn

A Ferrari that competed in the 1953 Le Mans 24-hour race sold last night for $11.9 million at an auction at Lake Como in Italy.

Sports cars that the “baby boomer” generation grew up with -- including six Porsche 911s priced at as much as $644,000 -- will star in a Bonhams auction.

A first-edition copy of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” with handwritten notes by author J.K. Rowling sold for 150,000 pounds ($228,000) at a charity auction in London last night.

An Aston Martin DB4 set an auction record of $4.85 million for the “James Bond” maker in a weekend sale as even wrecks found in barns sold for above- estimate prices.

Harry Winston, the watch and jewelry brand that Swatch Group AG acquired this year, yesterday paid a record $26.7 million for a colorless diamond in Geneva.

A Ferrari that competed in the 1953 Le Mans 24-hour race and another that John Lennon bought just after passing his driving test are coming up for auction as prices rise for classic models by the Italian maker.

Sotheby’s, the New York-based publicly traded auction house, will be opening a gallery for private sales close to its branch in London.

Vintage sports utility vehicles, SUVs, have become the latest growth area of the classic-car market.

An Asian online bidder last night paid $36,750 for an evening in Barcelona with Ferran Adria, the chef of El Bulli, winner of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants title a record five times.

French billionaire Francois Pinault’s family has donated to the Chinese nation two bronze animal heads that were the subject of a $40 million disputed sale at Christie’s International in 2009.

Classic Ferrari racers from the 1950s and 1960s, led by Testa Rossas, are the world’s most valuable motor cars, according to a ranking of auction prices.

A Pablo Picasso painting valued at 50 million pounds ($77 million) has been sold privately by Christie’s International after U.K. institutions failed to raise the necessary funds to keep it in the country.