Two auctions featuring Princess Diana, Monica Lewinsky, President Kennedy, Wallis Simpson and Adolf Hitler
This Thursday, the Chelsea Arts Club in London is holding an event to conclude their silent auction of images and paintings by members of heroes and villains. In Los Angeles, on the same day, Nate D. Sanders, a specialist in rare collectibles, is selling some equally if not far more controversial items.
Amongst the lots on offer in Chelsea is an image depicting Princess Diana by the renowned photographer John Stoddart. Titled Queen of Hearts? this photograph cleverly encourages those who see it to think about both the good and bad of a woman who polarised Britain and the world in terms of her own behaviour and treatment by others. Bidding currently stands at £300 for this imaginative creation and we encourage readers to bid for it here especially as all funds raised go towards supporting the Artist General Benevolent Institution and the Chelsea Arts Club Trust.
In California, the lot in the Nate D. Sanders auction that has attracted the most attention has been a bizarre collection of items given by President Clinton’s mistress Monica Lewinsky to another of her lovers, a drama teacher named Andy Bleiler. Expected to fetch upto $500,000, according to auction manager Laura Yntema, there is plainly still a bit of a way to go. The current bid is just $2,750. Given that one of the most visited articles we’ve ever published on The Steeple Times was about the world’s most famous intern, however, we expect many of our readers will be submitting offers.
A particularly morbid lot includes two pieces of bloodstained leather from the back seat of the Lincoln Continental in which President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Complete with autographed photographs and a letter verifying authenticity by the presidential historian Raleigh DeGeer Amyx, bidding stands at $2,148.
Returning to the royals, the Sanders auction includes a Cartier handbag, a set of gloves, a bracelet and a purse owned by Wallis Simpson but what many find truly shocking is that bidding on a two signed set of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf has already reached $10,630 against a reserve of just $500.
Each volume includes a pre-publication presentation inscription by the Hitler to Josef Bauer, the 34th member of the Nazi party and one of the leaders of the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch in Munich in 1923.
F. Scott Fitzgerald once stated: “Show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy”. Here, indeed, are opportunities to own a bit of both.
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