From The Orange County Register:
$5 Sinatra shirt fails to excite bidders

With William Shatner’s kidney stone going for $25,000 and Marilyn Monroe’s X-ray for $45,000, one might expect a Frank Sinatra tuxedo shirt would be a hot item. Not so. It wasn’t even lukewarm. The owner of the auction house ended up shelling out $1,200 for it. He’s hoping that there will be more interest at Sotheby’s or Christie’s for it.

From AFP:
Ahmadinejad’s old Peugeot sees million dollar bid

A 1977 Peugeot 504 would usually sell for about $2,000. The Iranian president’s Peugeot went for several zeros more. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad set up a website to take bids. An unidentified buyer offered to cough up $1 million. The proceeds are said to be going to build 60,000 homes for disabled, poor women taking care of their families.

From CBC News:
Lennon’s Abbey Road suit gets $46K US at auction

John Lennon wore it on the cover of the “Abbey Road” album. That provenance was enough for an unidentified bidder to put up $46,000 for the white Ted Lapidus suit. Another piece of Lennon-bilia, a brown velvet blazer worn in the “Imagine” video, fetched $18,000. This was a fire sale for the previous owner who paid $120,000 for the two items in 2005, but now faced financial difficulties.

From The Associated Press:
Dennis Hopper art collection up for auction in NYC

Vincent Price gave a fellow actor a bit of advice in the 1960s—put your money into collecting art. And Dennis Hopper took it to heart, amassing an impressive collection. He bought works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Wallace Berman and many others. Hopper added his own touch—two bullet holes—to a Warhol portrait of Mao after being startled by it one night. Christie’s auctioned 30 pieces from Hopper’s collection in November with a Jean-Michel Basquiat bringing in almost $6 million.

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From The Associated Press:
32-carat diamond sells for $7.7M at NYC auction

Leonore Annenberg, widow of “TV Guide” founder and billionaire Walter Annenberg, certainly knew how to celebrate her birthday. For her 90th in 2008, she had jeweler David Webb design a ring with a 32.01-carat emerald-cut diamond. Mrs. Annenberg died a year later. Last week, the ring sold at Christie’s for more than $2 million above its high estimate of $5 million.

From The Wisconsin State Journal:
Doug Moe: Sinatra letter worth more than antiques

An 84-year-old Wisconsin woman was set to go to an “Antiques Roadshow” in Madison. She had several items she wanted appraised. As she was about to leave her house, the friend who was driving her spotted a letter signed by Frank Sinatra on the wall. Said friend insisted on taking it. The angry missive had been sent to Chicago columnist Mike Royko refuting some things Royko had written including that Sinatra traveled with a flock of flunkies. The columnist then wrote, “If you say you have no flunkies, I take your word and apologize. I’ll even apologize to the flunky who delivered the letter.” The Roadshow appraisal? $15,000. None of the woman’s antiques even came close.

From BBC:
‘No consent’ for Mandela auction

Her heart was in the right place even if her brain wasn’t. Actress Charlene Theron put up a trip to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa at a charity auction. And to add further enticement, she threw in a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Only thing was she never got permission from Mandela. The prize went for $140,000 only after Theron promised to kiss the winner—a woman??—for 20 seconds.

From ARTINFO:
Judge: No Refund on Incorrectly Valued Schnabel Painting

In a case of caveat emptor, a buyer was told that a Julian Schnabel was worth $500,000, but she could get it for $380,000. That old saying that “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t” was the case here. After advancing money for the purchase, the buyer discovered it had been sold in 2007 for a paltry $156,000 and sued to get her money back. A New York Supreme Court judge basically said, “Tough luck.”

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