Word: auction
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...occasion was a four-day "Heirloom Discovery Week," mounted by Sotheby Parke Bernet, the world's largest art auction house. Its purpose: to lure out of attics and dusty desuetude valuables deemed worthy of sale on Parke Bernet's prestigious block. "Operation Auntie Fannie," as one participant dubbed it, in reference to the genealogical source of many of the heirlooms, attracted 18,000 hopeful owners of treasure. They brought in coins and cutlasses, paintings and pottery, silverware and schlock, for evaluation by the company's 40 Manhattan experts. At least one in four visitors hit attic gold...
Most of Auntie Fannie's legatees, of course, came in with items that were what an auction house employee delicately called "more decorative than collective"-meaning junk. One elderly couple thrust a collection of cups and dishes at Porcelain Expert Armin Allen and proclaimed, "These, young man, are very, very old." After examining the china, Allen observed diplomatically that "it says 'Made in Germany,' and it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that such a marking appeared." Another Parke Bernet diplomat, after examining a ring that its owner believed to be antique amber, said...
...told, the attic lode panned out to more than $5 million, of which about $1 million worth will be turned over to Sotheby Parke Bernet for auction. That will enable the sponsors of Operation Auntie Fannie to benefit too. The auction house's average commission...
...Unfortunately, fine artists need more than Rauschenberg's lobbying for legislation granting them a piece of the action on resale of their works [March 11]. While enforcement of royalties for artists may be feasible on resale by galleries and auction houses, it would be extremely difficult on private resale. Perhaps what artists need is a Victor Herbert (or a Rauschenberg) to lead them into an ASCAP-type organization that may have some clout and a capability to police all resales...
...more welcome in the temple than a live artist in the bourse. The blasphemy gave Mrs. Scull a fit of the vapors, and she was whisked away to a restorative party after Mr. Scull, looking suitably grim, told the rude dauber that he ought to be grateful, since the auction price would push up the price of his new work. Rauschenberg, accompanied by an artists' accountant and financial counselor named Rubin Gorewitz, went off to Washington to start lobbying. "From now on," he told the Wall Street Journal, "I want a royalty on the resales and I am going...