Kestenbaum & Company is pleased to announce that it has been chosen as one of the “250 Best Auction Houses Worldwide” by the prestigious publication Art & Auction in their just released Auction House Issue 2013.

Kestenbaum & Company’s auction of rare Judaica broke a record December 6th. “An extraordinarily rare and important 18th century, Polish parcel-gilt silver filigree spice container” sold for $337,900. That’s right, a spice container sold for the price of a house. A nice house.

There were quite a few art items – in this auction – ranging from illustrated books, to paintings, to kiddush cups, to beautifully written, superbly decorated meguillos and more, my personal favorite among the illustrations was Isidor Kauffman‘s set of color plates of chassidic life… Lot 243:

The third installment of The Cassuto Collection of Iberian Books is being offered at tomorrow’s auction. Many of the books in this allotment not only had to deal with the Inquisition’s censorship, but in some cases had to even use deception in order to get printed, as is the case with Lot 307, the crown jewel of the collections current offerings…

Elokim, limadtani mine’uray ve’ad henah agid nifla’otecha – True God, You have taught me since my youth and until now, I will say your wonders. Thus opens up Lot 101 (Menachem Azariah Da Fano‘s Yonath Elem) in the upcoming Judaica auction at Kestenbaum & Company – this coming Thursday; June 21st, 2012 at 3:00pm.

I still remember what David Quammen, the director of the D.C. Museum of Contemporary Art in Georgetown, told me back in the summer of 2006, when I interviewed him about an exhibit of erotic art for NY Arts magazine.