ART

Navajo Blanket Sold for $522,500: A 5-by-6-foot Navajo chief’s blanket, possibly dating from the late 1700s, has been sold at auction in New York for $522,500, setting a world record for an American Indian artifact. The ivory wool blanket, striped in brown, indigo and red, was sold at Sotheby’s to an unidentified American collector. The previous record for an Indian artifact was $115,500 paid for a classic Navajo man’s blanket sold at Sotheby’s in 1983. The sale also set an auction record for a piece of American-Indian ceramics when a 1,000-year-old classic Mimbres black-on-white picture bowl was sold to a European collector for $82,500. A rare 1793 Indian Peace Medal engraved with the figures of George Washington and an Indian chief smoking a peace pipe was sold for $55,000.