Lady Gaga Kiss Cup Sold For 6 Million Yen

Pop sensation Lady Gaga raised 6 million yen ($75,000) by auctioning off a tea cup with her autograph and a lipstick kiss. As part of a U.S.-sponsored effort to support Japan's recovery from last year's earthquake and tsunami A teacup and saucer used only once by pop sensation Lady Gaga has sold for more than 6.0 million yen ($73,700) at auction. The blue, white and gold cup hasn't been washed since the pop star drank Diet Coke from it at a press conference with U.S. Ambassador John Roos last June in Tokyo. With more than 1,300 bids, the week-long charity auction finished with a top offer of 6,011,000 yen, Yahoo! Japan confirmed.

The auction, on Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689), ended at midnight and proceeds will go to the Tomodachi Arts Fellowship Program that sponsors young Japanese to study in the U.S. Lady Gaga came to Tokyo 10 weeks after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck northern Japan, which left almost 20,000 people dead or missing and spawned the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. She wrote "We Pray for Japan" on the Narumi-brand cup, and pledged to sell it to support relief efforts. Lady Gaga returns to Japan to give three concerts on May 10th, May 12th and May 13th at the Saitama Super Arena near Tokyo.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1981 Painting Sold for $16.3 Million

Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1981 painting sold for $16.3 million at Phillips de Pury's contemporary-art auction last night, setting a record for the late Neo-expressionist painter. Estimated a price between $8 million and $12 million for the 6-by-4-foot canvas, the painting three telephone bidders but no one in the midtown Manhattan sales room where lots of seats were empty.

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Abraham Lincoln Opera Glasses Might Fetch $700,000 at Auction

Abraham Lincoln opera glasses are coming to the auction block next week and might fetch $500,000 - $700,000, estimated by Los Angeles-based auctioneer Nate D. Sanders. The glasses last came up for sale at Sotheby's (BID) in June 2011, with the estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. There were no takers.

Lincoln was fatally shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, while attending “Our American Cousin,” a play starring Laura Keene. During the comedy, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth entered Lincoln’s box and shot him in the head. The president's black enameled and gold glasses were picked up on the street by Captain James M. McCamly, a Washington City Guard who was helping transport Lincoln from the theater to the Petersen House, where the president died hours later. "You can imagine all the commotion," said Laura Yntema, auction manager at Sanders. "They probably just fell down as he was being moved across the street to the hospital. They are very well documented. We have James McCamly's military records and a notarized letter from the McCamly's family as well." Made by German company Gebruder Strausshof Optiker Berlin, the glasses remained in McCamly’s family for three generations. Bloomberg.com

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