Jon Englund and Donna Luger
You can’t put a price on provenance.
On Nov. 14, the iconic auction house Sotheby’s sold the famed jewelry collection of Marie Antoinette. The pre-auction estimate was $1.6 million to $2.9 million for 10 jewelry items once owned by the doomed French queen, whose love of baubles fueled her unpopularity among her country’s poor.
The auction saw fevered bidding, which pushed the sales total to $42.7 million. The star of the auction was a natural pearl and diamond pendant, which sold for an amazing $36.1 million. The original auction estimate for that item was $1 million to $2 million. Another piece that blew the estimates out of the water was a three-strand pearl necklace, which garnered $2.3 million against a pre-auction estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.
While these kinds of stories are rare, they demonstrate how provenance, the history of ownership of a valued object like a work of art, literature or jewelry, can impact the value of those items. Few of us will ever have something from a royal family that we wish to sell. But some of us may have an interesting memento or collectible once owned by someone notable, such as a famous athlete, actor, musician or war hero.
A good example of this is the Rolex Daytona wristwatch I wrote about earlier this year. Paul Newman was the owner of that iconic watch. Its well-documented ownership history served as its provenance and contributed to it selling for nearly $18 million at auction.
Another celebrity-owned watch that shattered estimates was Elvis Presley’s diamond rimmed Tiffany Omega. It was given to Elvis in 1961 by RCA Records to celebrate his sale of 75 million records. The watch was expected to fetch $54,000 to $108,000 but ended up bringing a high bid of $1,812,500.
On the quirky side was Andy Warhol’s cookie jar collection. Andy, famous for pop art in the 1960s, was an avid collector of unique cookie jars. In 1988, the collection came to auction in New York City. The pre-auction estimates had the collection valued around $7,000. By the time the hammer fell for the last lot, the collection had realized a total of $247,830.
As you can see, ownership and provenance are sometimes the most important contributors to the value of an item. So, what’s in your closet?
Jon Englund has more than 30 years of experience in appraising and liquidating personal property, jewelry, art, collectibles, antiques, furniture, printed items and more, as well as more than 15 years of experience in real estate. A Midwest transplant, Jon trained at New York University in appraisal studies.
Donna Luger has assisted during that time, and is a veteran Associate Broker and Realtor with HomeSmart Realty—Elite Group.
For more information, call (480) 699-1567. You also can send an email to Jon@KnowBeforeYouThrow.INFO.