Luxury and the arts From houses to cars and from Hockney to van Dyck, a profile of the best and the worst
A Cadillac that may or may not have belonged to Liberace comes to auction without much evidence of its provenance
In The Talented Mr Ripley, the detective appointed to discover what happened to Dickie Greenleaf states: “In America we’re taught to check a fact before it becomes a fact”. In the case of a 1930s Cadillac being auctioned by Barrons at Sandown Park in Surrey on the 17th September, this quote ought to have been applied. (more…)
One of Chelsea’s most important modernist houses comes to the market
Built for the parliamentarian and playwright Benn Levy and his actress wife and designed by the Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius, 66 Old Church Street is one of Chelsea’s most significant modernist houses. It’s no wonder that, even though in need of renovation, therefore, a £45 million price tag has been attached to the house by agents Beauchamp Estates. (more…)
A 1965 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Flying Spur for just £155,000
Buying grouse moors, yachts and classic cars are the pursuits of those who have bundles of spare cash. Generally, though the returns are extremely pleasurable, these luxuries eat money and consequently none are the hobbies of the faint hearted. (more…)
Professor Gert-Rudolph Flick puts his South Kensington cottage on the market for £105 million
The media have shown much interest in Beauchamp Estates bringing a hidden South Kensington cottage to the market this week for £105 million. What they missed is that this property, Park House off Pelham Street and Onslow Square, has quite a history (more…)
Repossessed flat comes to the market in Candy & Candy’s One Hyde Park
This morning, Spear’s Wealth Management’s Josh Spero reported that a repossessed one bedroomed flat was for sale in Knightsbridge’s One Hyde Park for £5.25 million. Given that flats there have sold for upto £140 million, this is most definitely somewhat of a news story one wouldn’t expect to hear. (more…)
Items with tarnished connections
Be it a rare tintype photograph of Billy the Kid (sold for $2 million in 2011) or the blood stained toe tag of Lee Harvey Oswald (sold for $67,500 in 2008), there are some collectors who rush to buy the most bizarre of items at ‘murderabilia’ sales. (more…)
007’s Lotus Esprit submarine car headlines second day at RM Auction’s annual London sale
The term ‘barn find’ is an often used phrase in the motoring world. In the case of a Lotus Esprit submarine car used in The Spy Who Loved Me, it’s more a case of something akin to the American reality show Auction Hunters as the vehicle was bought at a blind auction last after its then owner defaulted on the rent of “an unassuming storage unit in Holbrook, New York”. (more…)
The mainstay of the week: car displays and auctions
London has been the backdrop for some of the world’s finest cars this week. (more…)
Former John Entwistle Rolls-Royce shooting brake sells for £43,700
John Entwistle of The Who was a man who bought cars “to drink in” given that he never learnt to drive. A Rolls-Royce shooting brake that he commissioned in 1980 that The Steeple Times recently featured sold today at Bonhams for £43,700 including premium. (more…)
One of Liberace’s pianos heads to auction
Liberace personally played to 25 million fans during his 40-year career and during this time he built up a mammoth collection of pianos. One of them, a Conover pompadour model, will be auctioned by Britannia Piano Auctions in Manchester on 12th September. (more…)