Tuesday's puzzle solved: December 12, 2017

My time: 9:34.

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David J. Kahn showcases the current world's most expensive work of ART, SALVATOR MUNDI, an OIL by the OLD MASTER, LEONARDO DAVINCI, which recently sold at the auction house founded by James CHRISTIE for $450 million.

On a personal note, I believe that throwing around that kind of obscene sum for art acquisition is a sin when people are going hungry, not to mention a form of Trumpian member-measuring contest among people with more money than they do intelligence.  Which city is more worthy of our admiration, Abu Dhabi or Florence?  The one that throws money at art, or the one that creates it? 

But this is a super-clever crossword!  Nice job, David J. Kahn!

"Either of the Word Series winners  of 2004 and '05" is SOX, as in Boston Red SOX in '04 and Chicago White SOX in '05.  So many sox!  And yet knickerbockers get the shaft.

In basketball a PRESS is when you extend your defense into your opponents' back court.

Not only is April the cruellest month, APR is also Jazz Appreciation Mo.

Anita ODAY seems to be a very common crossword answer.

"Cartoonist Hoff of The New Yorker" turns out to be SYD Hoff, which is weak sauce, because he is far more famous for his children's books, most notably Danny And the Dinosaur, but also Sammy the Seal and Henrietta.

In Greek mythology, a mountain nymph is an OREAD.  Which I couldn't come up with without crossfill, showing yet again that my boasts of being a mythology maven are empty lies.

UTES is another very common crossword answer, but I was not sure that that tribe spoke Shoshoni.

Apparently CHARLES I once owned SALVATOR MUNDI.  How does one find out something like that?

Here is IONA again, the "college in Westchester County, NY."  Specifically it is in New Rochelle.  Go Gaels!  The Fightin' Gaels.

For "pornographic" I had *EROTIC but it's the more lascivious X-RATED.

I've never heard of, but perhaps should have, RON Chernow, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of George Washington and others.

Clever clues: "Some may be flying" is STARTS.  "First name in Solo flying?" is HAN.

And that's it.  OIL try to do better, but I feel like I KENT do much better!