By Matt Chaban 12/04/12 10:07am

Show Offs

A gallery that's not a gallery at 980 Madison.

Marilyn Monroe, Thomas Jefferson Among Sandy Refugees: Manuscript Show Moves Uptown After Fraunces Tavern Flood

What does a dispossessed Cherokee tribe, a John Lennon-Eric Clapton supergroup and Marilyn Monroe’s unborn son have in common? All were shopping for an apartment on the Upper East Side on Monday afternoon.

Well, not exactly, but it is possible to shop for both a $4 million apartment and a $40,000 manuscript at the Douglas Elliman showroom at 980 Madison Avenue through Sunday.

Profiles in History, a middlebrow auction house (Albert Einstein’s letter’s, the desk Bram Stoker wrote Dracula on, Kate Winslett’s emerald earrings from Titanic) and Marsha Malinowski, who once auctioned off a Magna Carta for $21 million, are offering some 299 items on December 18, “the Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector.” Ms. Malinowski, after 26 years at Sotheby’s, struck out in May on her own, and her first big offering is the work of the collector she has long known. Read More

By Drew Grant 7/09/12 8:30am

auctions

chewbacca2

Dreier Collection Asks ‘How Much Would You Pay For Chewbacca’s Head?’

Do you love movies? Like love-love them? Would you call yourself a movie “fanatic” or “buff”? Do you have $100,000 or so in liquid assets lying around the house?

Then get ready to put your money where your mouth is, because for the entire month of July, geeks everywhere will be bidding on movie artifacts from The Dreier Collection. And yes, there is definitely a tie-in to San Diego’s Comic-Con. Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 6/20/12 11:23am

Bones of Contention

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Breaking: Looted Tyrannosaurus Bataar Will Be Seized by Homeland Security Today

According to documents obtained by The Observer this morning, a judge has signed a warrant for the much-contested Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton, which was sold at auction last month for over $1 million.

As we reported Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s office filed a civil complaint aiming to return the fossil to Mongolia, where the suit alleges the fossil originated (and was looted from).

Today, agents from Homeland Security Investigations will seize the skeleton and move it to a government facility in New York where the government holds art and antiquities that are awaiting repatriation, Lou Martinez, a spokesman for the  Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit of the Department of Homeland Security, told The Observer.  Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 6/18/12 7:25pm

Bones of Contention

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Making a Federal Case: U.S. Attorney Seeks Seizure and Forfeiture of Mongolian Tyrannosaurus Skeleton

Since last month’s auction-gone-wrong, a near-complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton valued at over a million dollars has been sitting in crates at Cadogan Tate, an art storage facility in Sunnyside, Queens, protected by a temporary restraining order. The origin of the skeleton was contested by expert paleontologists and the president of Mongolia himself—they suspected looting, and wanted the bones returned home.

Today, Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a joint investigation with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, announced that they had filed a civil complaint in Manhattan Federal Court seeking seizure and forfeiture of the skeleton so it can be returned to Mongolia. Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 5/29/12 6:09pm

Bones of Contention

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Strange Bedrock Fellows: Auction House and Mongolian President to Cooperate in Fight Over Fossil

Nine days after an uncharacteristically exciting natural history sale, in which an auction of near-complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton was forcibly interrupted by a lawyer over concerns that the bones had been looted from Mongolia, a partnership has been struck.

Robert Painter, the legal representative of His Excellency Elbegdorj Tsakhia, the president of Mongolia, and the auction house handling the sale, Heritage Auctions, have announced that they will open a joint investigation to determine the origin of the bones and the legality of their ownership. Read More

By Laura L. Griffin 5/21/12 8:30am

DINO NO-NO

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T-Rex Wreck: Mongolian Representative Disrupts Skeleton Auction

Everyone expected the auction of the T-Rex skeleton to go peacefully. But they were wrong.

On the fourth floor of an airy gallery building in Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, a small group of private collectors and natural history enthusiasts gathered to witness the historic auction of a 24-foot-long, museum-quality Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton, which was expected to bring up to $1.5 M. After a couple hours of uneventful sales of things like fine gemstones and amber-trapped insects, the marquee object came up.

The centerpiece auction was abruptly interrupted. Read More

By Steve Huff 1/28/12 11:55am

Political Theater

President Obama.

Take a Presidential Cruise in Obama’s Million-Dollar Car

Before he was leader of the free world cruising around in armor-plated vehicles with a Secret Service retinue, then-legislator Barack Obama allegedly tooled around in this tasteful gray Chrysler sedan. This is apparently a legitimate auction for the 2005 Chrysler 300C the President used while he was an Illinois State senator. Lisa Czibor, who has told reporters that she is holding the auction for someone else, says the  first 19,000 miles were all [future] presidential powered.

The auction holders are also a little defensive about the $1,000,000 asking price: Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/18/12 6:49pm

Checking in

No Soho. (Hotel Chatter)

You’re Auctioned! Trump Soho Going to the Highest Bidder

Blame the bad spirits. Or maybe it was the economy. Or living next door to the Holland Tunnel. Or the fact you couldn’t actually live there because it was not a condo—that would violate city zoning for a manufacturing district—but a condotel, where units were habitable 120 days a year and never for more than 30 days at a stretch (move out for a day and you were fine). Still, in this age of the foreign buyer, when all anyone wants is a pied a terre, the Trump Soho would seem to be the perfect home. Wasn’t that the plan all along?

Well, it has not worked out, as the developers of the bedrock-defying 48-story tower have decided to put the remaining units in the building up for auction, according to Bloomberg. Alex Sapir, developer of the property and son of the cabbie turned billionaire Tamir Sapir, said he was approached by an interested party but has decided to go the auction route to test the waters of a bigger sale. Read More