The woman who gave the president of Elvis Presley’s first fan club sponge baths and emptied his bed pans is being sued by the family. After Gary Pepper died, she sold what she believed to be a clump of Elvis Presley’s hair through a Chicago auction house. She got more than $18,000 for the hair allegedly clipped when he joined the Army in 1958. Now, Peppers cousins are claiming she had no right to be so presumptuous to think that whatever black hair was lying around the house was hers to take. Some are even disputing whether it was really Elvis’ in the first place. The only proof that these were the King’s follicles is that self-proclaimed celebrity hair expert John Reznikoff claims they’re the real McCoy. Without the benefit of a DNA test, he claims he can just tell it is genuine because he keeps his own lock of Elvis’ hair in his cowhide wallet.
Category Archives: Auction
Barbra Streisand auction to feature stickley, limbert and Dirk Van Erp
A copper and mica Dirk Van Erp lamp ($12,000-$18,000) will be among the items featured in The Collection of Barbra Streisand auction, to be conducted by Julien’s Auctions on October 17th-18th at the Beverly Hilton. The auction will include more than 500 items, many of which are antiques, from the entertainer’s original New York apartment, her Carolwood home in Beverly Hills, and her Malibu Ranch estate. Highlights will be some of her first antique purchases made as a young woman in New York City. Streisand has always been a fan of the Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau and Art Deco and some stunning examples of these periods of style will hit the block. A Gustav Stickley tall-back rocker is expected to teeter between $12,000 and $15,000, while a rare Gustav Stickley metal chandelier is likely to illuminate for $15,000-$18,000. Other Gustav Stickley items include a wicker table lamp, a child’s chair, an embroidered table scarf, and a hammered copper serving tray. The Arts & Crafts selection is rich, also including an oak side table, a table lamp, and a wall mirror all by Charles Limbert. Crossing two genres: Art and Arts & Crafts, a group of five Frank Lloyd Wright frame architectural renderings are expected to build up to a final bid between $1,200 and $1,800. Fine art selections include a painting by Kees van Dongen, a group of Edward Curtis photographs and a number of American school floral and genre scenes. The sale will also feature stage-worn clothing and costumes, as well as pieces from Streisand’s personal wardrobe. Included in the auction will be her pink robe from “The Way We Were,” and ensembles from “Meet the Fockers,” to custom Donna Karan and designer pieces, including two Christian Dior outfits. Other highlights include costumes from “Funny Lady,” “On a Clear Day,” “Yentl,” “Nuts,” and “Prince of Tides.” A full exhibition will be open to the public at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills from October 10th-16th. For more information, call (310) 836-1818.
Catalog cathy spreads education
Cathy Carey is so motivated to educate that she has mustered up the strength for the last few weekends to set up hundreds of auction catalogs at the outdoor shows, despite suffering from Multiple Schlerosis. She has been selling auction catalogs since 2002 and is studying to be a certified gemologist. Carey encourages antique dealers and collectors to buy catalogs for both reference and education. Each one is a photographically-intense history book, she explained. ”You are going to see things in these catalogs that are museum quality items that go into the hands of private collectors that you may never see again,” she said. Her prices range from around $5 to $50, and the more high profile, desirable auctions catalogs can be much more expensive. She claims she even has one that she wouldn’t dare bring to the shows that is $4,000. One of her chief markets are certified appraisers who customarily use them to obtain “comps” or comparable items that have recently sold. Catalogs are one of the main sources that Dennis Boses of Off The Wall Antiques in Los Angeles uses to educate himself on the values of items. He also absorbs detailed information about the hottest items currently on the market. He particularly supports Los Angeles Modern Auctions by reading their catalogs cover to cover. Carey can be contacted at (310) 266-9950.
Jacko's costume disappoints for $30,000
What “bad” timing! The prices brought by Michael Jackson costumes and wax figures at the Profiles in History Auction were disappointing to say the least. It was held just prior to his sudden and tragic death at the half century mark. One can only imagine what these pieces would have brought just a few days later. The primo lot at the Calabasas Hills auction was Michael Jackson’s costume from the “Bad” music video. It was estimated to bring between $30,000 and $50,000 and settled in at $30,000. The other top lots included the 13 wax figures that made up The Last Supper. The holy group soared past their pre-auction estimate of $6,000-$8,000 to a divine $13,000. John, Paul, George and Ringo
Money back as long as the buyer destroys it
Once again ebay has come under attack, and its not just by opponents to the website this time
Neverland auction will never be
Michael Jackson told a Beverly Hills auction house to beat it when he canceled an auction of memorabilia that was scheduled to take place on April 25th. This represents a $9 million loss for Darren Julien of Julien’s Auction House. They were going to collect 35% commission on the auction, which was estimated to bring upwards of $20 million. The auction house had already invested $2 into promoting the event. After coming to an agreement, Julien’s Auction will return the gloves, statues, crowns and cars to Michael Jackson rather than sell them to an eager public. The auction had been scheduled to run April 21st through April 25th and expected to generate upwards of $30 million from the 1,390 items on sale. The items that were supposed to hit the block included a life-sized Lego model of Darth Vader, statues of E.T., the cast-iron gate from Neverland Ranch decorated with the royal coat of arms of Britain, and smaller personal effects, like his rhinestone-encrusted socks. His red lam
gandhi's glasses get 60 times estimate after media charade
The famous conspiracy theorist documentarian James Otis of California made a fortune off a pair of steel-rimmed glasses, sandals, and a few other personal effects that would have been worth $9 if they hadn’t have been owned by a major historical figure. Using a highly choreographed media spectacle, Otis managed to ramp up interest in the personal effects of Mahatma Gandhi, until it reached a fever pitch of $1.8 million. Up until that moment, the lot was only estimated to bring a maximum of $30,000. Otis “attempted” to break through the intense media scrum outside the auction house on Manhattan’s 57th Street to demand the sale to be stopped. Fortunately for his pocketbook, his last minute attempts proved fruitless. He wasn’t able to reach the auctioneers in time. The buyer was one of India’s richest businessmen, a liquor baron by the name of Vijay Mallya. Although he probably saw through the stunt, he still paid 60 times the original estimate, to return the collection to India. The hedonist and Bon Vivant on a grand scale, known for his wild publicity stunts, had said before the controversial auction that he was prepared to pay any price to secure the steel rimmed spectacles, leather sandals, pocket watch, and a basic bowl and plate. Mallya is ranked India’s 7th richest man. In a rare display of altruism, he claimed to have intervened in the auction for the pride of Indians the world over. The day before the sale, the Indian officials dismissed Otis’ ludicrous offer to give them Gandhi’s items for free in exchange for the government agreeing to spend almost an additional $40 billion on the poor in India. Cynics said that the best line from this whole controversy was when Otis said while driving to the bank in his Masarati, “I never intended for my actions to cause this controversy. I pray the outcome is positive and one that Gandhi would approve of.” With that reasoning, Otis could probably get a job at AIG.
the last passenger
One of the last surviving passengers aboard the Titanic, 96-year-old Millvina Dean, is auctioning off some documents that were aboard the ship to pay her nursing home bills. Dean was only nine weeks at the time when the ship struck that iceberg and sunk that fateful night on April 14, 1912. Dean was put in a sack, lowered into a lifeboat and with her mother and brother was saved by the steamship Carpathia. Her father died. When the surviving family members arrived in New York, they were given a small wicker suitcase filled with donated clothes. Millvina’s mother saved the suitcase, some rare prints of the Titanic, and letters she received from the Titanic Relief Fund. The memorabilia was floated to the top of the auction with a final bid of $53,906. As time goes by, memorabilia that was actually on board the Titanic becomes scarcer. In June, a second-class passenger list from the White Star Line with a handwritten note, “Titanic, First Sailing,” launched for $33,900 at a Philip Weiss Auction in New York.
Christie
With an eye to one of the world
