A rare sapphire necklace known as the “Royal Blue” sold for HKD 125,450,000 ($16,131,051) at Christie’s Hong Kong on Tuesday, during the auction house’s Hong Kong Luxury Week Autumn 2025. The necklace, featuring 104.61 carats of Kashmir Royal Blue sapphires, was the highlight of the “Magnificent Jewels” sale and fell within its pre-sale estimate of HKD 100–150 million.
Sotheby's has announced that its new flagship auction house and gallery space, located in the iconic Breuer Building on Madison Avenue, will open on November 8. The building, designed by Marcel Breuer in 1966, originally housed the Whitney Museum of American Art and later served as temporary home for The Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The opening exhibition will feature works for Sotheby's marquee modern and contemporary art auctions, followed by pieces for Luxury Week in December. The building also includes a new restaurant from the team behind La Mercerie, and the galleries will be free and open to the public.
Sotheby's will open its new global headquarters in the Marcel Breuer–designed building at 945 Madison Avenue on November 8, 2025, after a renovation by Herzog & de Meuron with local partner PBDW Architects. The Brutalist landmark, originally completed in 1966 for the Whitney Museum of American Art, later housed the Met Breuer and the Frick Collection during its renovation. The project restores Breuer's original open gallery floors, adds state-of-the-art lighting and climate control, and preserves period details like the lobby's domed ceiling lights. The opening will feature a free public exhibition of Modern and Contemporary art ahead of marquee auctions starting November 17, with design sales and Luxury Week following on December 5, and a fine-dining restaurant by Roman and Williams opening later in the winter.