Billionaire Rockefeller’s personal items will go under the hammer with a starting price of US$30
Connecticut auction house’s Rockefeller estate sale includes billionaire’s iron doorstop from US$30, several monogrammed items and a Picasso print
Much of the success of Christie’s US$833 million estate sale of David and Peggy Rockefeller’s belongings can be attributed to the Rockefeller name. It’s hard to imagine a gold money clip selling for US$75,000 without it.
But the real test of the Rockefeller mystique might not have been at Christie’s. It might instead come in two weeks at a small auction house called Nadeau’s Auction Gallery in Windsor, Connecticut.
“Christie’s went through and took their US$850 million-worth of stuff” from the Rockefeller estate, explains Edwin Nadeau Jr, president of the auction house. “And then there were some items left.”
After collecting all the objects and throwing out a few pieces Nadeau’s didn’t think it could sell, the house has organised close to 623 lots, which will hit the auction block on June 2. “There wasn’t a lot of garbage,” the auctioneer says. “It was pretty clean, and everything had some value, at least.”
The sale is expected to bring in from US$200,000 to US$400,000.
The cheapest lot contains three objects: an iron doorstop in the shape of a sheep; an iron horseshoe-shaped boot scraper, and an iron boot jack (used for prying off boots) in the shape of a beetle, all of which are estimated from US$30 to US$80.
In what might be the bargain of the year, the second least expensive item is a Sterling-silver match safe inscribed with Rockefeller’s initials, the words “The White House”, and the date “5-16-63,” (six months before US president John F. Kennedy was shot). It carries a high estimate of US$100.
“A lot of things are inscribed with the Rockefeller monogram” Nadeau says. “Normal things like silver trays, but even towels with a big R on them.”