The anomaly is concerned with the observation that in multiple-item auctions of identical objects, prices tend to decline over time. I show that in the case of wine auctions, which have been analyzed frequently, the anomaly is likely to be caused by the fact that most bids are entered by...

Public sales art catalogues include low and high pre-sale price estimates by experts. This makes it possible to analyze whether pre-sale estimates are unbiased predictors of realized prices. Unbiasedness is tested using a sample of some 1,600 lots of English silver auctioned by Christie's and...