Sotheby's auction house sold a 8'9 by 6'5 Persian rug from the early 17th century for $33.7 million in New York City.
An anonymous telephone bidder bought the Clark Sickle-Leaf Carpet from Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. for a price that is more than three times the previous auction record for a carpet ($9.6 million in April 2010). Every rug at the auction sold for at least double its high estimate.
The rug had been bequeathed to the gallery in 1926 by William A. Clark, an industrialist and U.S. senator from Montana.
