As estate sales of the über-wealthy go, the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection sell-off at Christie’s last year was a major success. Across 2,300 sold lots, it netted $200 million for charity, set a ...

The rare 14th-century portolan chart is worth $7.5 million. Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / Getty Images Last fall, Christie’s auctioned off a “highly unusual” nautical map as part of an estate ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. La Jolla map dealer Alex Clausen came across this rare 14th century nautical chart at an estate sale for Ann and Gordon Getty.

WASHINGTON — John Hessler, mathematical wizard and the senior cartographic librarian at the Library of Congress, slipped into the locked underground vaults of the library one morning last week.

To safely navigate inland waters, big ships and other vessels helmed by professional mariners use nautical charts produced by the government in the U.S. and Canada. Charts – the proper name for ...

In the last third of the 16th century, the Spanish crown set in motion a project to obtain a complete map of the New World. The method thought up for this was to use surveys, known as Relaciones ...