Christie's Great Estates Video Gallery showcases international real estate represented by the affiliates of Christie's Great Estates. All videos have been produced to take less than a minute of your time while still conveying the luxury, glamour, and style of the world's finest luxury homes. Click to visit the video Gallery.

Mitsubishi Real Estate Services is a division of Mitsubishi Estate Co. Ltd., Japan's largest real-estate company. Standing at the heart of Mitsubishi Estate's strategic marketing structure, the Real Estate Services department works to foster deeper ties with clients through proposal-based marketing, which is conducted across the company as a whole. Making full use of their accumulated real estate development, planning, and management know-how, both arms of the company are active in efforts to realize maximum value for their clients.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Mitsubishi Real Estate Services provides real estate brokerage, condominium sales, and office and residential property leasing services throughout Japan. The firm's parent company was established in 1937 and acquired real estate related business from Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha, a predecessor to the firm's parent company established in 1893.

For more information on Mitsubishi Real Estate Services, please visit www.mecyes.co.jp or contact Ayako Iizuka at +81-3-3510-8054.

On February 12, 2009, the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, Christie's New York will auction Abraham Lincoln's original, handwritten re-election speech. The four-page speech was delivered at the White House on 10 November 1864, immediately after Lincoln's re-election to a second term as President. This unique document, never before offered for sale, is expected to realize in excess of $3 million. The precious manuscript remained with Lincoln's papers until 1916, when Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham and Mary Lincoln, presented it to New York Congressman, John A. Dwight, as thanks for his efforts to secure Congressional funding for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. In 1926, Dwight's widow gave the document to the Southworth Library Association in Dryden, New York. Proceeds from the sale will fund construction of a new addition to the library, and help pay expenses of its operation, maintenance, and programming.

An extremely rare 35.56-carat blue diamond sold for £16.4 million (US$24.3 million)—a world record price for any diamond or jewel ever sold at auction. The stone was presented to the international market for the first time in nearly 80 years at Jewels: The London Sale at Christie's King Street on December 10th. Known as "Der Blaue Wittelsbacher" since 1722, it is one of very few diamonds that can claim 17th century heritage, incredible rarity, and exceptional beauty. In 1664, King Philip IV of Spain (1605-1665) selected the diamond as part of the dowry of his fifteen-year-old daughter, the Infanta Margarita Teresa (1651-1673), upon her engagement to Leopold I of Austria (1640-1705), who later became Holy Roman Emperor. The diamond then became part of the Austrian and the Bavarian Crown jewels. In 1722, it entered the Wittelsbach family and was worn by successive rulers in both the Order of the Golden Fleece and the Bavarian Royal Crown until the abdication of Ludwig III (1845-1921) in 1918.

In February 2009, Christie's, in association with the Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, will offer the Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Collection, one of the most important private collections ever to come onto the art market. More than 700 objects including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and ceramics will be offered for sale at Paris' Grand Palais from February 23–25. Amongst the collection are a 1914 painting by Pablo Picasso, Instruments de musique sur un guéridon, which is estimated to realize €30–40 million (US$37.8–50.4 million), and a Henri Matisse painting, Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, expected to achieve €15–20 million (US$18.9–25.2 million). Proceeds from the sale, estimated to realize €300 million (US$377 million), will go to the Pierre Bergé Yves Saint Laurent Foundation and to a new foundation Bergé has created to fund scientific research to fight AIDS.

(Pictured above, Picasso's Instruments de musique sur un guéridon, which is estimated at €30-40 million)