Incredible!
Well, I was modest in my expectations at the Jackie-O auction yesterday, but even so--it was insane. The biggest jumps in prices actually came from items with low intrinsic value--etchings intrinsically valued at 100-150 were going from $9,000-26,000. As we watched one etching, albeit pretty, of a young woman of the Napoleonic era soar to $26,000 (list price: $100-150), a Frenchman leaned over to me in amazement and uttered: "You can pick these up on the streets of Paris." Which you can.
Two small items I had my eye on were actually some of the more modest sales: a small table went for $6,000 ($400-600) and a beautiful simple cane chair went for $5,500 (2-300). These prices were twice what I could pay. I was at the afternoon session where the Test Ban Treaty Desk was sold (a real interesting transaction). A certain period, somewhere between $600,000 and $700,000, the bidders took to bidding in $10,000 increments and after about $80,000 of that, the auctioneer said they'd like to move it along and then the bidding continued on in $50,000 increments until it reached its final sale price of $1.3 million.
The afternoon session, mostly etchings, some artwork, a lot of furniture, both antique and reproductions, and ending with the Test Ban Treaty Desk --that session required $10,000 to play around with for even the smallest thing.
After the afternoon session, Cathy and I wondered if we could stay on for the evening session where the real jewelry was going to go. We were told it was sold out. So Cathy and I kept inserting outselves in the line to the women's bathroom. One bathroom, three stalls, 100-200 women at the auction. Instead of a line, it was a bathroom loop. We'd go. Come out. Get back in line. The bathroom attendant was wondering what was going on, but this ritual took up the hour needed before the evening session ticketholders arrived. We carried our big numbered card, our paddle, with us so it looked like we belonged. And then we walked right into the main room of the auction and found some seats.
You had to have $25,000 minimum to play in that game. You can count on your hands the items that have gone for less than $6,000 in the entire auction.. Unfortunately, we had to catch the train home so we left ten items short of the Big Rock's auction. True to my observation, however, it went for about 4 times the listed price (500-600 grand). It went for $2.5 million. Pieces that were intrinsically valuable were going for about four times the given value. Pieces that had very low intrinsic value (like the etchings) were going 20-30 times their estimated value. People, in general, were willing to shell out $10,000 to $25,000 just to get a piece of the action.
Oh-oh... Cathy just called. I got a good Auction scoop! We had gotten additional tickets for two more sessions (there were nine in all). Once you had your bidding paddle, you could ask for more attendance tickets. Well, after an intense day of sitting on our butts for seven hours and hanging out in Sotheby's bathrooms (no food or water), we figured we'd had enough and Cathy gave the tickets to friends of hers. (I knew no one here who would seize them with glee.) So...
Remy and Saul took two tickets and went to the auction yesterday morning. They sat behind a mother and daughter who said they'd come in from Ohio. They were quite well dressed. They saw Remy going through her catalog and asked if they could look at it. Conversation ensued with Remy and the woman from Ohio talking about the value of objects. That morning's session was fashion jewelry. (Not costume jewelry, mind you--*fashion* jewelry.) The woman from Ohio appeared to want to buy something for her 18-yr old daughter. Now, when the jewelry is auctioned, a projection image is flashed onto a screen of the object being bid on. A pair of green "pearls" flashed on the screen. The woman from Ohio began to bid. And won. She got this necklace, which Remy said wouldn't fetch $2.00 at a garage sale, for $50,000.
At the end of the session, the woman from Ohio invited Remy and Saul "backstage" so to speak. They went behind a curtain, down a corridor, into a room where there was a buffet of food, and four folding chairs. The group sat on the folding chairs and waited a short while until they were approached by a Sotheby's employee carrying a velvet pouch. The employee opened the pouch and presented the necklace. It did not even have a clasp to it and the beads were hung together with string. With no clasp, the daughter could not even try them on. The mother turns to the daughter and says, "Are you happy? Do you like them?" Whereupon, the daughter gives a bewildered "yes." One "yes" that contains tentativeness, regret, fear and amazement. I wish I could be a fly in the room when the husband sees what he just spent $50,000 + 15% buyer's premium + NYC sales ta_ + NY state tacked on. Hoo hoo. As Cathy pointed out, for $50,000 you could buy some really nice REAL jewelry.
It was clearly out of my league. But what an event. News cameras everywhere. SOmetimes when a bidder was hesitating, the auctioneer would say, "It's only money." The room would laugh. The jewelry auction was totally unreal. Tens of thousands of dollars being called out at split-second intervals, escalating until the top bid seemed to be reached, there'd be a pause, the auctioneer would circle around that figure and the gavel would hit the podium. "Sold!" Sometimes the auctioneer would be at the high bid pause, the gavel on the way to strike the "sold" sound on wood when another bid would emerge and then there'd be another 20-30,000 bidding ride until the object was finally sold. It was a rich man's feeding frenzy.
And from the standpoint of dramatic structure, it was interesting to see how the items were placed to sell. The last thing auctioned off in the afternoon was the desk. The last thing auctioned off in the evening was the Big Rock--the huge engagement ring Ari gave to Jackie. But there was another ring, same shape, smaller proportions (like you might actually be able to wear it on your hand), from Ari, ($50-60,000 in intrinsic value) that was place 3/4 of the way through--same place in a play you would place the high point before the clima_. I actually got more tickets for this morning (there were some salt cellars going for 50-80, yea-right) that I really liked. They're going to go from $3,000-$4,000. I don't even want to be frustrated.
There were mostly women there, but for the most part it was men who were doing the bidding. Which I thought was interesting. And JFK's things (golf clubs and books and papers) are summoning very high prices. The women may be ga-ga over Jackie and have husbands who want to indulge them, but those men are still smitten with JFK from when they were young men.
All in all, an amazing e_perience. Artifacts of America's Romantic Period. Going to people who have survived the cynicism of post-modern America with cynicism's antidote. Money.

April 28, 1996 Susan A. Mendelsohn All Rights Reserved

email in care of kelley rouse

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