Lots from Liechtenstein

Not everyone can live in a palace, but now some can live with things that have been in one. The Princes of Liechtenstein (theirs is the only surviving Principality of the Holy Roman Empire) are putting 450 pieces from their collection — everything from paintings to clocks — on the block at Christie's in Amsterdam on April 1st.

The family has divested itself of some of its treasures in the past. It sold Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci, a portrait on par with the Mona Lisa, to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC in 1967 for $5 million, then the most money that had ever been ponied up for a work of art, which really puts the $100 million skull in perspective. Figure Painting will hopefully have some of the fine art highlights of the sale shortly...