Dominating auction news on Tuesday was the record-setting sale of Audubon's Birds of America which reached $11.5 million, making it the most expensive book in the world. Dec. 7 was a banner day for Sotheby's as superb pieces in other categories, offered in London and New York, also catapulted well above estimates.

Notably, the serpentine-shaped Harrington Commode, dating to circa 1770 and almost certainly crafted by Thomas Chippendale, achieved a world record price for English furniture of £3,793,250 ($5,980,438) from an estimate of £600,000-1,000,000. This exquisite George III commode was sold by the order of the Trustees of the 10th Earl of Harrington’s Will Trust.

In New York, a Marble Portrait Bust of the Deified Antinous, Roman Imperial, Reign of Hadrian, Circa A.D. 130-138, sold for $23,826,500, far exceeding its $2-3 million estimate. The hotly-contested piece came from the renowned collection of the late Clarence Day and went to an European buyer. Read more: Reuters