Anyone wanting to walk in the shoes of
fallen financier Bernard Madoff was in luck Saturday: Thousands of belongings
from his New York City penthouse, including his used shoes, went on the auction
block.
An anonymous bidder paid the highest
price of the auction, $550,000, for a 10.5-carat diamond engagement ring that
belonged to Madoff’s wife, Ruth. The winning bid topped the $300,000 minimum
pre-sale estimate.
Ruth Madoff’s French diamond earrings
fetched the next highest price. Valued at $100,000 to $137,500, they went for
$135,000 to an undisclosed buyer.
The man who became a symbol of greed and
deceit on Wall Street also had a lavish collection of watches. One of his
vintage steel Rolex Moon Phase watches sold for $67,500, topping a $60,000
minimum estimate.
The sale started Saturday morning at the
Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers in Manhattan, with an auctioneer from
Texas-based Gaston & Sheehan rattling off lots at a tongue-twisting speed
all day and into the evening.
Buyers responded at fever pitch
They raised their hands to signal a bid,
accompanied by bloodcurdling shouts from bid-spotters marking a winning price.
Their swaggering style, as if herding
bulls instead of selling Madoff’s artsy ones, seemed appropriate for an auction
of the belongings of a Wall Street trader who cherished the winning bull in
every form. He bought statues and paintings of them and even named his boats
Bull, Sitting Bull and Little Bull.
A leather bull foot stool , including a
tail that had broken off , sold for $3,300, against a pre-sale estimate of $250
to $360.
While many of the more than 400 lots
included luxury items, the Madoffs’ penthouse did have touches of culture.
A 1917 Steinway grand piano from their
living room went for $42,000 , six times the minimum estimate of $7,000. The
buyer was an 81-year-old Long Island real estate executive.
“I’ve got loads of pianos, but this one
has history, it’ll make an interesting conversation piece,” said John Rodger,
an amateur pianist who will keep the Steinway in his home in East Islip.
An oil painting by the late American
artist Frederick Carl Frieseke sold for $47,500, against a pre-sale estimate of
$20,000 to $45,000.
The Manhattan sale was the last auction
in New York of Madoff belongings. A third and final auction is to be held in
Florida to sell off items from a Palm Beach home that went for more than $5.5
million last month.
Madoff was arrested two years ago and
quickly admitted his scheme. Investigators said he used billions of dollars in
cash from new investors to pay old ones, cheating charities, celebrities and
institutional investors.
US marshals seized everything in the
Madoffs’ Manhattan apartment and Long Island beach house: worn socks, new
monogrammed boxer shorts, Italian velveteen slippers bearing the initials BLM
in gold embroidery. All of it was being sold , with morbid fascination for
mundane articles from the couple’s daily life that also were on the block, from
bed linens, clothing, cookware and luggage to intimate items like cuticle
scissors and bottles of shampoo.
Valued at $75 to $110, the lot with the
slippers included Ruth Madoff’s monogrammed shirt. A young man paid $6,000 for
all of it, saying he’ll never be able to wear the slippers because his shoe size
is 13; Madoff wore a size 8. He declined to give his name.
For $1,700, 11 pairs of boxers came with
a pair of silk Armani pants and one of Prada pantyhose, along with dozens of
pairs of used socks, in a lot estimated to be worth $960 to $1,370.
Besides bulls and fine watches, Madoff
loved shoes. He owned about 250 pairs, many never worn , made in Italy, France,
Belgium and England.
Ten pairs of Madoff’s used designer
shoes sold for $900, against a minimum of $250.
The disgraced 72-year-old trader is behind
bars for life in a North Carolina prison, and his wife was ordered to leave
their homes.
Despite their vast wealth, the Madoffs
didn’t seem to make much room for house guests.
The auction included their early
19th-century bed with fabric hangings and “intense sun fading,” at a
pre-auction estimate of $8,000 to $11,400.
“Just $500?” the incredulous auctioneer,
Bob Sheehan, said of the first bid, adding, “This was the only bed in the whole
house, I’m not kidding! $500? My God, it’s not a pullout.”
It sold for $2,250.
Mr. Sheehan conducted the auction for
the US Marshals Service, which said it had grossed more than $2 million from
the auction, far above the pre-sale goal of at least $1.2 million. Proceeds
will go to more than 3,000 clients Madoff swindled in a multibillion-dollar
Ponzi scheme.
“All 489 lots of ill-gotten gains sold
today and the proceeds will go towards something good for a change,” said
Deputy US Marshal Roland Ubaldo.
Last year’s New York auction of Madoff’s
property raised $1 million.
The Manhattan penthouse went for $8
million, and his yacht and boats also were sold.
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