Results tagged “auction”

A Manhattan woman who has been keeping her Andy Warhol original in the closet for decades, has finally taken it out of the makeshift storage room so she can cash in. The painting (a self portrait) will go on the auction block at Sotheby's on November 11th. The woman was reportedly a receptionist in Warhol's factory at age 17, and in 1967 he gave her the painting, which is inscribed to her. Why sell such a personalized gift? It's estimated there are about one million reasons.

Many of you probably have that image of a youthful Farrah Fawcett in a red bathing suit engraved in your memory, but another iconic photograph was taken of her that decade.

A Mets' World Series ring will be given out in Queens after all this year and instead of costing hundreds of millions in salaries to banged up megastars, one of the old Shea faithful was able to bring it home for a mere $56,000. That's how much one Queens native paid to win an auction for Lenny Dykstra's 1986 World Series ring the outfielder won with the Mets, possibly even beating out Dykstra himself. It was one of 11 auctions of Nails memorabilia that fans got to dip their bids into, closing yesterday and bringing in over $162,000.

Many moons ago Burt Britton, a former bartender at the Village Vanguard, began collecting portraits drawn by writers and other famous folk keeping the barstools warm (Kurt Vonnegut and Allen Ginsberg amongst them). Today they go on auction at Bloomsbury Auctions (check 'em out).

Red Hook is getting another big name, but this time it's not a Big Box store. The NY Times reports that the once corrupt waterfront location is getting classed up by Christie's Auction House! They'll be moving into "an enormous, high-tech warehouse with security worthy of James Bond, all to protect the multimillion-dollar artworks, manuscripts, furniture and even rare cars." The luxury storage facility will be housed in one of the former New York Dock Company loft buildings, which is being renovated, and by January "will boast infrared video cameras, biometric readers and motion-activated monitors, as well as smoke-, heat- and water-detection systems," as well as private viewing galleries. This sounds primed for an art caper, Hudson Hawk style. The lofts were originally going to be luxury apartments, but the developer has said, “I still think it will be a fantastic residential conversion, but with the economic climate being what it is today. it may make sense to do a Christie’s-like commercial deal and treat it as a bond—you, know, put it away for 30 years, let my children see what’s happening 30 years from now.”

       

Have a hankering for some rock & roll leftovers? The Gotta Have It! Rock & Roll Pop Art Auction is currently being housed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex. You can check out the catalog, and bid online, here, where you'll find everything from Eminem's King of Pop costume to The King's rings... and inexplicably a T2 prop. The auction runs through August 5th, so if you have any desire to own answering machine tapes holding naughty messages from Madonna, act now!

The 3,000 square-foot East Side apartment belonging to Marc Dreier, the once prominent attorney who pleaded guilty to a $700 million fraud involving fake promissory notes, was auctioned off yesterday—and the winning bid was Berkshire Hathaway executive Ajit Jain's $8.2 million offer. Bloomberg News notes that's "21 percent less than what [Dreier] paid two years ago" and that "The last recorded sale at Beacon Court was a 3,058 square-foot unit on the 49th floor," which sold at $12 million in May. Dreier's apartment is on the 34th floor and boasts a huge terrace. The proceeds of the sale are being split by personal bankruptcy creditors and the U.S. Attorney’s office—Dreier did have a $5 million mortgage after all. The $8.2 million sale includes items inside the apartment, such as nine pints of Haagen Dazs, "a half-eaten raspberry peach pie, a collection of Christian Liaigre furnishings and seven pairs of black Ermenegildo Zegna shoes, mostly size eight." While signing the paperwork, Jain reportedly said, "Right now, I'm having buyer's remorse." These days, Dreier is sort of familiar with remorse.

Coney Island already has Michael Jackson’s Dragon Wagon Kiddie Coaster (albeit only temporarily), but now they want another piece of the King of Pop! Don't stop til you get enough, etc. ATZ reports there's an opportunity to snag a Neverland ride on a permanent basis, as the bumper cars designed for and by Michael Jackson are up on the auction block at eBay. The man behind the auction is carnival owner Earl “Butch” Butler, who brought the aforementioned Dragon Wagon to town. The bidding is currently at $46,100.00 (and has not met the reserve price), and the Coney folks are suggesting Mayor Bloomberg buy it as a gift for the City of New York. Should Coney Island consider a new design plan: Neverland II?

Paging Bret Michaels! Anne Hathaway has put herself on the auction block at eBay, and the asking price is currently a measly $1,248.56. The listing says: "Treat your daughters or two special people in your life to an unforgettable afternoon or evening with film star and Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway. This once-in-a-lifetime event includes tea with your family (you and two guests) at Sweetiepie, the West Village’s pretty-in-pink dessert eatery that’s perfect for kids of all ages, or cocktails with you and two friends with Anne at another mutually agreed-upon New York City location." There is a 0% chance Ms. Hathaway is ending up at a tea party. And while her ex probably can't afford it, maybe for an extra 500 bucks she'll dress like a boy. (P.S. Free shipping! And all proceeds go to the Public Theater.)

You know that iconic photo of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out? It just sold at auction for $74,324, and now belongs to a man in Great Neck, NY. Newsday reports that the expression was captured in 1951, and Einstein himself gave one copy (of the nine he requested) to American broadcast journalist Howard K. Smith with the inscription: "This gesture you will like, because it is aimed at all of humanity." It's the only time he ever came close to explaining his action in the photograph, and the new owner notes: "In the middle of a Communist witch hunt, here he is sticking his tongue out. I think he's telling us to buck authority." This is probably way more fun than owning those notes on relativity.

Before you lay down some hard earned cash on that Bob Dylan poem, you should probably know a little bit more about it. Like, for instance, that those are actually the words of Canadian country singer Hank Snow. Reuters reports that earlier this week Christie's announced the sale of a Bob Dylan poem believed to have been written in 1957 when he was away at Jewish camp, but they "failed to detect that the words, with a few minor variations, matched those of a song previously recorded by Snow." A reader alerted Reuters of the fact, who then informed the auction house, who announced, "Additional information has come to our attention about the handwritten poem submitted by Bob Dylan to his camp newspaper, written when he was 16, entitled 'Little Buddy.' The words are in fact a revised version of lyrics of a Hank Snow song. This still remains among the earliest known handwritten lyrics of Bob Dylan." The big question here is: did Dylan cop to copying the lyrics back in '57? It certainly wouldn't be the fist time he's lifted some lines.

Last night, the trustee liquidating Bernard Madoff's estate put the disgraced financier's Mets home opener tickets (well, the tickets are sort of the ones Madoff purchased) up for auction. However, the link from the Madoff Trustree website to the eBay auction is now invalid—the eBay page it brings up says, "This listing (170319289099) has been removed or is no longer available... If the listing was removed by eBay, consider it canceled." The listing was online last night (the bidding was at $1,700 around 11 p.m. for the pair of tickets in the Delta Club Gold section) and bidding was supposed to have ended tomorrow night. Mysterious! Update: The tickets are on eBay—the current bid is $1,500.

With the old Yankee Stadium looking very desolate (no more grass!), the Bronx Bombers are getting ready to sell off the legendary ball field's items, now that they have struck a deal with the city. See, the city owns the old Yankees Stadium and the team needed permission to sell off things like urinals, seats, foul poles, etc. The NY Times reports that while the deal is still being completed, the city is supposedly guaranteed at least $10 million, plus "the city will receive 5 percent of net sales over $16 million; 10 percent of sales over $17 million; 20 percent over $18.5 million; 24 percent over $19.5 million and half of everything over $29 million." Keep in mind, the city has given the Yankees hundreds of million in subsidies to build the new House That Jeter Built.

This daguerreotype by an unidentified photographer, likely taken in October 1848, can be yours for $70,000, give or take a few grand—at least, that's how much it's expected to go for when Sotheby's auctions it off on Monday. The image depicts a country estate somewhere around the equivalent of today's Upper West Side near Bloomingdale Road, 'a continuation of Broadway' which, after 60th Street, wound northwestward through farmland by the Hudson River.

A number of items that once belonged to Mahatma Gandhi sold for $1.8 million at auction yesterday despite an outcry from the Indian government and a last-minute change of heart from the items' owner. The Times describes a somewhat chaotic scene that unfolded minutes before the lot was to be auctioned off, when a lawyer for James Otis, who amassed the items piece-by-piece in the '90s, tried to halt the proceedings. Julien Schaerer, an official of the auction house, said that Otis had entered a "legally binding agreement" to sell the items, and ordered the lawyer escorted from the building. The lot, which included his sandals, pocket watch, and spectacles, was ultimately purchased by Vijay Mallya, who owns the company that makes Kingfisher beer. Otis had earlier rebuffed an offer from the Indian government to buy the lot, calling it too low, but said he would be willing to hand it over if the government agreed to increase spending on the poor. It's unclear what prompted Otis's second thoughts, but he said he would not challenge the auction if Mallya returned the items to India.

Items which once belonged to Mahatma Gandhi—including his sandals, pocket watch, spectacles, an eating bowl, plate, and results of a blood test—will be auctioned off tomorrow in Manhattan through Antiquorum, a leading watch auctioneer. The memorabilia is owned by James Otis, an LA-based documentary filmmaker who has gradually amassed the possessions, many of which were given away to various individuals by Gandhi himself during the course of his life.

Following news that a New Jersey deejay was auctioning off his famous 867-5309 phone number, a 33-year-old New York lawyer is putting his 212 version back on the block. Reportedly he attempted to cash in on the Tommy Tutone digits back in 2004, but "Verizon protested that it wasn’t his number to sell." Now he retaliates with a loophole (also used by the other seller): he's selling his company which owns the number, as stated on an eBay posting that also declares "Jenny Doesn't Live in New Jersey!" (Indeed, according to the band's singer she's probably from California.) Currently there are 11 bids with the price tag at $42,265.50. But buyer beware, "It’s actually a disaster as a personal number...it’s hard to go five minutes without someone crank-calling."

Earlier this year we talked to Robert Thurman (Uma's dad, and also the head of the Tibet House), who told us that his aim is "to preserve Tibetan culture" and "raise funds to support Tibetan cultural projects like art departments in schools." Tonight, along with an Honorary Chair Committee that includes Yoko Ono Lennon, Martin Scorsese and Sting, they'll be doing just that at the 6th Annual Tibet House US Benefit Auction at Christie’s. Proceeds will be going towards the Ghar Sita Mutu and Pema Ts’al schools in India and Nepal, as well as the Tibetan Community Cultural Center being built in Queens. Some of the items on the block include a safari vacation, an amulet made by a Newari Buddhist monk and blessed by Mata, and a Fantasy Dinner Party with 11 friends in your own home joined by composer Philip Glass (who will also perform). Oh and that dinner? It's cooked by none other than chef Eric Ripert.

Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun, who died from injuries sustained during a fall at the Beacon Theater Rolling Stones concert in 2006, will be represented at the Christie's Pop Culture/Punk Rock auction today via a portrait.

Both Sotheby's and Christie's have been suffering lately, either not selling items at auction, or selling them for much less than anticipated. While not everyone is buying, there's plenty of folks selling--even outgoing Lehman Brothers boss Richard Fuld dropped off a collection at Christie's as part of "his own bailout plan." Not all of his pieces went for as much as he'd estimated, as has been the outcome for many sellers as of late. So who is lucking out on the auction block? None other than Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. During these times of economic downturn, The NY Post reports that his 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat, titled "Untitled (Boxer)" went for $13.5 million...about $1.5 million more than expected!

      

High-end auction houses aren't very punk rock, but Christie's is about to put some classic punk era memorabilia on the block. They announced the auction, which takes place November 24th, yesterday--and it will include more than 120 punk treasures from legends like the Ramones, the Velvet Underground, Patti Smith, Blondie, David Bowie and more.

Even though Lars Ulrich recently declared the art market is "perhaps the last frontier where the best of the best will not go the way of the rest of the economy," it seems the Metallica drummer doesn't have a very good read on the climate after all. The NY Times reports that "a Picasso Cubist painting that was to have been a star of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art sale on Nov. 3 has been abruptly withdrawn." The artist's Arlequin (ca. 1909) was expected to take in over $30 million, but "fears that art prices were heading the way of the world financial markets" may have changed the seller's mind. Sotheby's confirms that, as of now, the painting is off the market. At the very least, the painting's history is worth reading about: The Times details how its previous owner, Surrealist painter Enrico Donati, came to purchase it (knowing Marcel Duchamp may have come in handy!).

Following in the footsteps of U2 bassist Adam Clayton, Metallica's Lars Ulrich is now set to auction off his Jean-Michel Basquiat. The painting will be on the block at Christie's in New York come November 12th, and the NY Times reports that it "depicts a victorious black boxer, his hands waving in the air, against a richly painted background filled with the artist’s signature graffiti scrawl. The figure is part hero, part warrior, part victim. It is also said to be autobiographical." Ulrich bought the painting in 1999, and it's expected to bring in around $12 million minimum at auction. Of his timing, he said, “Of course it’s an awkward time to sell, but I’ve always been about taking chances." He added: "I have a lot of faith in the art market. It’s perhaps the last frontier where the best of the best will not go the way of the rest of the economy.” [via the Observer]

     

Mets fans hoping to scavenge Shea Stadium's dumpsters for memories are fresh out of luck, because the team is selling every nook and cranny of their old house at an online auction. Seriously, everything is for sale. Yankee Stadium has only sold off old seats so far, but plan on seeing more of The House that Ruth Built become a cash cow for the city at the end of October, when the remains are auctioned at MSG.

JetBlue may be charging you for pillows and blankets, but it will be auctioning over 300 roundtrip tickets and some vacation packages this week. According to the AP, the opening bids start between 5 and 10 cents: "The flights are to more than 20 destinations, including four 'mystery' JetBlue Getaways Vacation packages to undisclosed locations." There are specific ranges of dates when people can travel and taxes and other fees are not included. A finance professor at Northeastern University, Henry Platt, thinks that the winning bids will probably end up being 85-90% of the flight or package's actual value. You can check out JetBlue's store on eBay here.

A real life Batmobile from Batman Returns is heading to the auction block soon...located at the 38th annual Kruse International auction in Indiana, of all places. The car, which is a much sleeker/less rugged design than the one in the recent Christopher Nolan films, will go to the highest bidder over Labor Day weekend, Wired reports. "The prop vehicle from Tim Burton's 1992 Batman movie is helping generate heat for this year's sale. Similar, but less valuable, Batmobiles have drawn as much as $550,000, according to the auction house." Kruse notes that this "the Warner Bros. & DC Comics sales approval agreement clearly authenticates that this is the number 3 Movie Batmobile," of the 5 that have been on the big screen...but maybe you should hold out for one of the latter ones.

            

There's an update on the intriguing story of William Milliken Vanderbilt Kingsland, "a threadbare eccentric and an amateur genealogist of the Upper East Side" who died in 2006, only to leave behind a world of confusion. To sum up this UES Man of Mystery, the NY Times explains upon his death "it was discovered that his birth name was Melvyn Kohn, that he resided not on Fifth Avenue but in a small apartment on East 72nd Street, and that he had not — counter to his claims — attended Groton or Harvard, nor had he once been married to a French royal." However, along with the confusion came hundreds of works of art and no will.

         

After being contested by two of Brown's former business managers, Christie's hosted the James Brown Collection auction today, something his children were also unhappy about and planned on protesting.

How much would you pay for a sweaty, worn-in baseball hat? What if it were Babe Ruth's? Yesterday one of the player's old navy-blue flannel caps went for $328,000 at auction (nearly double what it was expected to bring in); the auction of Yankee memorabilia was held at the Javits Center. The NY Post notes that the hat is one of three in existence that the Babe wore during games, and his initials (G.H. for George Herman) are embroidered inside. One of the other caps belongs to ex-Yankee David Wells, who got his for a mere $35K.

Don’t get too comfortable homeowners – the city’s foreclosure rate is skyrocketing, up a startling 66% in the first quarter of 2008 compared to last year, according to Crain’s and the housing research site Property Shark. Queens saw more foreclosures than the four other boroughs combined, with 508 in the first quarter, up 59% from the same period in 2007.