The golden sceptre of Empress Charlotte of Mexico, daughter of the King of the Belgians, sold for €120,000

The golden sceptre of Empress Charlotte of Mexico, Princess of Belgium, has been sold for €120,000. Plus the auction house's commission, naturally, which is usually some 20 to 30 per cent of the sale price.

In my view, this was a thoroughly successful sale and an excellent acquisition for a reasonable sum, especially when set beside any run-of-the-mill piece by Fabergé, which goes under the hammer for just such money every other week, yet can boast of a provenance amounting to no more than having stood, at best, in one of two hundred display cabinets of some reserve palace

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

The golden sceptre of Empress Charlotte of Mexico, daughter of the King of the Belgians, sold for €120,000

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s