Florida isn’t just for retirees and Disney fans now, it’s also for Salvador Dali lovers as a new museum opens in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Taking two years to build, the new Dali museum golds over 2,140 pieces and is officially the largest collection of Dali art outside his home country Spain.  The new building was built to replace an older museum that had slowly gone into disrepair and in dire need of updating.

The new larger museum also has a cafe, patio and garden. In between the galleries a 75-foot spiral staircase that takes patrons to the third floor. HOK and the Beck Group designed the museum which has reinforced concrete walls that can protect the artwork from a category 5 hurricane.

Now you don’t have to plan your Florida vacay around Mickey Mouse, you can plan it around Salvador.  Admission cost, $21.

On Wednesday Christie’s hosted an Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale that saw Henri Matisse’s bronze sculpture Nu de dos hit the auction block and set a record for the artist.

The bronze relief sculpture was estimated to go for $35 million but beat all estimates going for a record-breaking $48.8 million.  It made sense that the bronze went for much more due to the fact that this is the very first time one of Matisse’s Back series pieces has ever come to auction.

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Infamous luxury brand TSL has given Snoopy the grand treatment with a whopping 207-carat Diamond Snoopy.  At 5.5 inches, this luxury Snoopy features 9,917 diamonds, 783 black diamonds and 415 rubies.  It took TSL’s designers over eight months to create this sparkling Snoop and if you have a spare $427K lying around he can be yours!

Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sold to an undisclosed buyer for a whopping $106.5 million on Tuesday.  This is a world record for any kind of work of art sold at auction, which must have made Christie’s auction house pretty excited.

The painting of Picasso’s mistress sold for an astounding $106.5 million, a world record for any work of art sold at auction.  With a pre-sale estimate of around $80 million, no one was as surprised as Christie’s auction house when the painting sold for such a high amount to an unidentified telephone bidder on Tuesday.

As part of an old masters auction on July 6, pieces such as this Peter Paul Rubens “A Commander being armed for Battle” will be auctioned.  This painting has been in the Spencer family for 200 years and is part of the collection being auction, which is supposed to go for around $30 million.

1959 Dom Ruinart

Maarten Baas Melting Collection Ice Bucket

Blanc de Blancs in 2009 and decided to honor the occasion by commissioning a work of champagne-related art from Dutch artist Maarten Baas.

The Melting Collection Ice Bucket is what resulted, a beautiful shining silver bucket and its lid dissolving helplessly into a puddle on the table.

Only 50 will be produced, delivered in a felt-lined leather and wood presentation box complete with a ‘made-for-display’ water-filled Dom Ruinart bottle.

Price: $8,800

Rankin's cheeky new photography book.

single malt Scotch debuted. Now the shutterbug has released a new volume of edgy erotica appropriately titled Rankin’s Cheeky.

The book features a foreword by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and an introduction by Heidi Klum, who has shed her clothes for the photographer’s skillful erotic studies on a number of occasions. “I’m never shy with Rankin,” Klum says.

Kate Moss has also been snapped by the master in her birthday suit many times; some of the images are featured in the book. “Any time Rankin takes a picture he knows what he wants, and there is really no chance of being anyone but who you are, even if you try,” she notes. “You can trust him. I trust him.”

New book from Vatican's Secret Archives.

the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 9th century. Other documents include a letter from Mary Queen of Scots to Pope Sixtus V, a letter from Pius X to Hitler, and works from saints include St. Teresa of Avila.

The regular book is available from Amazon.com and other sources for around $100. But for the truly dedicated collector there is a limited edition of 33 which is hand bound in the studio of the Vatican Secret Archives. The books will be printed on felt and hand stitched with leather ties. Collectors editions will be numbered, stamped and certified. Each book will be made by request and can be ordered in Italian, English, French or Dutch and can be personalized. It sells for € 4,950. A press release from VdH Books states that there is also the possibility of paying a unique visit to the Vatican Secret Archives for the 33 buyers.

Hallmark Jewellers creates the world's most expensive Christmas ornament.

The ornament itself is composed of 18 carat white gold and is studded with over one and half thousand diamonds. Two rings consisting of 188 red rubies surround the body of the ornament.

It took more than 130 hours just to set the gems in the piece.

The National Association of Goldsmiths independently valued the bauble at 82,000 British pounds which depending on the exchange rate is just over $130,000.

All of this hard work and expensive gemstones are not going unprotected. In something out of a James Bond movie the decorative ornament is encased in a special container framed in steel an 6mm thick laminated glass. If the alarm is triggered a internal signal will fill the shop with smoke.

Lehman Brothers art collection goes to auction.

will be finding new homes on 1 November 09.

The auction showcases modern and contemporary art with works by Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and others. The art being sold is estimated to be in the $500,000 to $750,000 range. Proceeds will go towards any creditors.

If contemporary art isn’t your fancy, on 6 December 09, Freeman‘s will sell off 30 lots of European fine paintings from the Lehman collection.

Additionally, another 500+ lots will go to auction on 12 February 2010.

~~ Raine Devries