ap.google.com | 11/16/o9 | suspect: Bernard Madoff
Bernard and Ruth Madoff's belongings fetched several times their estimated values at auction Saturday for a total of about $1 million, twice as much as the auctioneers had hoped for.
The fallen financier's blue satin New York Mets baseball jacket with his surname stitched on the back, valued at up to $720, sold for $14,500. The jacket carries its own special meaning: Team owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz were among the victims of Madoff's fraud.
Madoff's Hofstra College ring, estimated at $360, went for $6,000.
Charlie Blumenkehl raised his hand for a set of Madoff's golf irons, clinching them for $3,600, against a $350-to-$400 estimate.
Two pairs of Ruth Madoff's diamond dangle earrings sold for $70,000 each, against a pre-sale estimate of no more than $9,800 and $21,400. But the most highly prized item in the sale, one of Bernard Madoff's 17 Rolex watches, fetched only $65,000, paid by an unknown buyer. The watch was valued between $75,000 and $85,000.
The auction was organized by the U.S. Marshals Service, which seized the couple's properties — a penthouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side and houses in Montauk, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla.
The lots ranged from dishes, pens and stationery to decoy ducks, furs and the Rolex, dubbed the Prisoner Watch.
The Swiss chronograph watch was modeled on those made for World War II Allied airmen imprisoned in Germany, who used them to time prison patrols and plan a possible escape. This one graced the wrist of Madoff, now a 71-year-old inmate in a North Carolina prison, serving a 150-year sentence for defrauding investors for decades.
The nearly 200 lots were an assembly line of conspicuous consumption, fueled by proceeds from the tens of billions of dollars that Madoff's Ponzi scheme cost investors. Some investors were wiped out financially while the Madoffs thrived, buying up watches and jewelry.
At the auction, a lineup of other Rolex and Cartier models filled a giant screen, selling for up to $30,000 each. But the couple's tastes could also be downright common; seven Swatch watches went for $850, against an estimate of $100 to $150.
Comments