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Original Basketball Rules Could Bring Millions

The NBA basketball season recently kicked off with plenty of trades, drama and dreams of championships. How did this game turn into one of the world's most popular sports? Part of the legacy of basketball can be traced back to the pieces of paper shown above, the 13 rules for basketball that James Naismith wrote down in 1891. Naismith, a physical education instructor at a YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, had been charged with coming up with a new indoor activity for his gym class. The simple set of rules went on to define a new sport that caught on like wildfire. Naismith died in 1939, three years after basketball became an official Olympic sport.

On December 10 those rules will be put up for auction at Sotheby's in New York and are expected to bring in at least $2 million. The proceeds will go to the Naismith International Basketball Foundation, which promotes sportsmanship and provides services to underprivileged youths. Ian Naismith, a grandson of James Naismith, said it was a family decision to auction off the rules and put the money back into the foundation.

"We need to take the money and work the money back into kids," Ian Naismith told The Associated Press. "We call it recycling. With the economy going south the last couple of years, my stroke, my wife passing away, it was more important to me to have the game go back into the kids. It's what Dr. Naismith wanted." The rules could bring in over $2 million.

The Sotheby's auction on December 10 will also feature Robert F. Kennedy's copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of only 26 copies signed by Abraham Lincoln, and a battle flag recovered from the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Tags: basketball rules, james naismith, Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, NaismithMemorialBasketballHallOfFame, SothebysInternationalRealty

Sotheby's First Home Auction in 20 Years

by Carrie N. Culpepper (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Auctions

On May 31 antiques lovers and voyeurs can step inside Virginia billionaire-cum-winemaker Patricia Kluge's 45-room estate in Albermarle County, Va., for a peek at what could be theirs. Kluge's grand estate, Albermarle House, is on the market and she plans to sell off its contents during a two-day auction conducted by Sotheby's on June 8 and 9. Those who buy an auction catalog are welcome to the preview the auction items on-site in May.

"Albemarle House, [Kluge's] collaboration with designer David Easton, rejuvenated high-style country living in the United States in the English tradition, which had declined since the early 20th century," says Sotheby's Worldwide head of French, Continental and English furniture, Alistair Clarke.

Sotheby's will auction Kluge's entire collection within the house, much of which came from top dealers in the U.K. and private collections around the world, including Chinese paintings and works of art, books, sporting guns, jewels, lighting and decorative objects as well as designer gowns by Christian Lacroix and Givenchy. The Kluges' gilded life will be on the auction block.

The home itself is for sale, too. Kluge hasn't had any luck selling the 300-acre estate, which she originally listed for $100 million in October 2009. It's a wonder why she hasn't been more patient with the mansion and its 23,538-square-feet, eight-bedrooms and 13 baths. She recently reduced the price to $48 million after less than a year.

Gallery: Patricia Kluge's Albemarle House

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Remaining Madoff Homes Already Discounted

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

Bernie Madoff's last home may have sold strong, but it looks like the momentum is fading. His home in the Hamptons beat the listing price and ultimately moved for more than $9.4 million. Unfortunately for his victims, interest in his Manhattan penthouse and Palm Beach estate isn't as strong. The prices for both have been cut, as the Ponzi schemer moves from news to history. Both homes have been on the market for only two months.

The Manhattan home, on the Upper East Side, offers 4,000 square feet which the broker, Sotheby's International Realty, says is "perched atop a distinguished white-glove prewar cooperative." Originally offered at $9.9 million, the asking price has been slashed by $1 million. So, if you're looking for some new digs in the city, this should be perched atop your list. A 10 percent price drop after only two months in the game means that you could probably work the price down a little bit further. If you were a Madoff investor, think of it as recouping some of what was so wrongly taken from you.

The situation in Palm Beach, Florida isn't much better. The discount is only 7 percent, with the price plunging from $8.49 million to $7.9 million according to the Corcoran Group, which is handling the sale. This home is billed as "a return to classic Florida island living ... when Palm Beach was a less manicured tropical paradise." What does that mean? Does classical Florida island living have anything to do with defrauding the neighbors?

Madoff, now a resident of Butner, North Carolina, believed that the Manhattan apartment was worth only $7 million. He pegged the Palm Beach residence at $11 million.

When both properties move, the proceeds will go to Madoff's victims. Of the $65 million, roughly, that he took, $1.4 billion is said to have been recovered. Even when compared to the investor losses identified, $21.2 billion, it's but a drop in the bucket. The auction scheduled for Saturday may help a little bit, with Bernie's Mets jacket and Ruth's golf clubs going under the gavel.

Gallery: Bernie Madoff In New York City

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Auction Houses Test Photo Market ... and Fail

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury & Company felt out the fine art photography market at the beginning of the month. With the broader industry in turmoil, the auctions held from March 30 to April 2 were to show just how well one of the art market's most profitable sectors would fare.

At auctions in New York, Sotheby's pulled in $200,000 for a portrait by László Moholy-Nagy that was shot in 1920 ... good enough to be in the top 10 for photos by this artist. But, in better times, the piece probably would have gone for the $300,000 price estimate that Sotheby's put on it. Christie's moved an artist's proof by Richard Avedon for $95,000, and Phillips de Pury & Company's best result was a portfolio of 11 photos by Avedon, which sold for its low estimate of $100,000.

In general, ArtPrice referred to the results as "frankly disappointing." This is a stark change from 2008, in which more than 11,000 photographs moved at auction for a total of $158 million. By January of this year, the ArtPrice Fine Art Photograph index had plunged to its 2004 level.

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Sotheby's Opens in Doha, Bizarre Timing

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Once the undisputed land of conspicuous wealth and consumption, the United Arab Emirates is being squeezed by a large drop in oil prices. It's a shame this comes after the region's addiction to art has become fully entrenched. Sotheby's is planning its first contemporary art sale from its new Doha, Qatar branch on March 18, 2009 – also the opening day of the Art Dubai fair. Hell, it's enough to make you "scream" (see photo).

This looks like the triumph of ambition over common sense, but Sotheby's was probably too far into its Middle Eastern endeavors before the bottom fell out on the region's finances. And with Bonhams and Christie's already in town, Sotheby's had little choice but to follow.

The UAE has committed quickly to the art scene. Abu Dhabi is working on building a Louvre, and is erecting a Guggenheim. Last year, art auction revenues reached $34.9 million, up 70 percent from 2007. But, the upcoming auction should be tricky, particularly with the poor performance of the sector last fall in more established markets, like New York, London and Hong Kong.

In around two weeks, we'll see if Sotheby's will be able to make this new auction house work, or if it will fall victim to the greater recession-triggered decline in the art market. The Mei Moses All Art Index dropped 4.5 percent last year. This seems like a modest amount, but you need to remember that record-setting sales continued through the middle of the summer. Last May, Roman Abramovich was a billionaire with a new Francis Bacon piece in his collection. Today ... we know he feels pain, too. The second half of the year wiped out the first half's records and pulled prices down further.

It's a tough time to count on the market to make Sotheby's Doha a success, but the market doesn't give us choices.

[Photo: "El Grito" by Julio Aguilera]

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Sotheby's Shutters Aspen Real Estate Office

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Wealth

In what is a sure sign that the luxury property market in Aspen, Colorado has finally hit rock bottom, Sotheby's International Realty is closing its office there next week. "We are going out of business," managing partner Mike Russo tells the Aspen Times. "We couldn't scale back enough to survive." Back in November my colleague Deidre Woollard reported that Aspen's property market was in free fall. The dollar volume of real estate sales in Aspen plunged by a whopping 46 percent in 2008 versus 2007. Despite scaling back its operation, Sotheby's Aspen lost $60 million worth of deals that were under contract to sell in October and November, which put the nail in the coffin. "We didn't know it would decline to this level," Russo says.

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