Hammer time: Kluge auction pulls in $6.4 million first session
A pair of lamps, displayed on a TV screen, goes for $4,375.PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE
How do you tell who was the most serious about taking home a piece or two of the Patricia Kluge collection among the 150 or so attending the morning session June 8? Perhaps the person who brought a Penske rental truck?
After a week of previews, Sotheby's handed out paddles and began accepting bids on the 930 lots with an estimated value of $13 million that will be sold over two days. Sotheby's agents lined tables on both sides of the room, ready to take phone bids. By around noon, at lot 122, sales had hit $4.1 million. And by the end of the day's first of two sessions, the bids totaled $6,362,498.
Auctioneer Maarten ten Holder, Sotheby's managing director for North and South America, kept lots moving briskly, and seemed equally solicitous of bids, whether the item was $200 or $200K.
The first lot to pass the six-figure mark was a George II sideboard table, which, exceeding its $150K estimate, sold for $212,500. Alas, Helios the Sun God 2nd-century bust did not. Valued on the low end at $200K, it was a veritable steal at $182,500. A George III mahogany dressing commode believed to be Chippendale went for $338,500 though valued between $400K and $600K.
A murmur went through the crowd at lot 67–- six engraved wildfowl and wader guns, estimated at $330K-$500K. Winning bid: $350,500.
Other items far surpassed their estimate. Lot 99, a pair of Hubert Robert paintings with a high value of $300,000, had three bidders who sent the sales price soaring to $434,000. And a German silver-gilt nef, more easily identifiable to some of us as a model sailboat, which adorned the drawing room at Albemarle house, went for $134,500, more than double its high estimate of $60,000. The sale continues June 9.
Updated 4:30pm with $6.4 million total from first session.
8 comments
Kluge's yard sale! :) Follow the signs!
*** yawn ***
Didn't several cows get loose today down near Scottsville?
Moo!
I've never seen news coverage of those yard sales that have rusting trucks sitting on cinder blocks in the front yard - with a discordant patch of weeds tickling the undersides - while a table full of Made-in-China stuff basks in the sun on a rickety table with a little Yapper-Dog acting as greeter.
I read that Pat Kluge's house has gone down in sale price from $100 million to $48 million. Is this due to the recession?
I won't be surprised if it eventually is down to $35,000, but you have to be willing to dispose of anything that's inside it by taking it to the landfill.
I hear the guys setting up tables and serving made 9 an hour. Im guessing they didnt bid on much.
Gilligan! Do NOT bid on that George the Fifth tea cosy. Don't blow your nose--they took that as a bid! Gilligan? Don't wave at me either, that's another bid! GILLIGAN! Stop sneezing the tea cosy is already over its estimate! Oh dear me oh dear.
Subdivide the land. We desperately need the land around here. The city and county governments are obsessed with rendering as much land as possible untouchable.
PS: The landfill would probably charge $40k - they want a new dumpster.
Shouldn't Bill Moses change his name to Bill Moses-Kluge? I do not resent the rich who earn it; I more resent glorified Anna Nicole-Smith's who manage to dupe such a "World Class" area like Cville/Albie into thinking she is worthy. Mamma Mia, that Daily Regress article a couple of Sunday's ago was nauseating.
Everyone has suggestions for what Mrs. Kluge should do with the money, most people saying she should donate it. How do you know what she plans to do with it? Why do people assume she won't use it for good or that she might not donate anonymously?
$6.4 million on a bunch of ostentatious crap that won't do anyone any real good. Meanwhile we have all kinds of cuts to basic social services needed to keep people off the streets, out of the hospital, out of jail, and in school. Betcha lots of the folks wasting money at that auction are the same ones who complain that their taxes are unaffordable. Good to know they still have plenty left over to buy frivolous things while the rest of us struggle to make ends meet. Too bad the proceeds are going back to Ms. Kluge rather than to the non-profit charities that could really use them right about now.