Peter the Great miniature demands $1.3 million
- November 04, 2009 17:39
A miniature portrait of Czar Peter the Great in a diamond-encrusted frame — owned for decades by an Arizona family that didn't realize its historic significance — has been auctioned for $1.3 million. Sotheby's says the 18th-century Russian treasure was purchased Monday by an anonymous telephone bidder for 10 times its pre-sale estimate of $120,000. The bejeweled rarity was bought from a London dealer in 1951.