Mid-Hudson Auction Galleries will be holding their “Movie Star News Auction” April 6th and 7th in New York and via online bidding partner LiveAuctioneers. The auction will consist of The Bettie Page Collection, Hollywood Icons, and The Movie Star News Collection. An exhibition will be held tomorrow. [Read more…]
Per Courthouse News Service, Richard Abrahamson (a former owner of Toon Art) has filed a lawsuit against John LeBold and Americana Dance Theatre, Inc. over the sale of a number of wardrobe pieces attributed to use in various Hollywood films. The complaint was filed in the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati, Ohio last week, and “Abrahamson seeks $90,000 for breach of contract and fraud, and punitive damages“, per the CNS report. One of the pieces purchased by Abrahamson (via Toon Art) from LeBold in 1999 was Elizabeth Taylor’s costume from Cleopatra (1963), which Abrahamson recently attempted to resell through Profiles in History. The report claims, “[u]pon publication of the [auction] catalogue [sic], the owner of the authentic ‘Cleopatra’ dress contacted Profiles in History to notify them of the fraudulent representation in their catalog“. [Read more…]
As was the case in previous years (see 2007 Year in Review, 2008 Year in Review, 2009 Year in Review, 2010 Year in Review), what follows is an editorial featuring my personal observations and opinions with regards to the business of buying, collecting, selling, preserving original pop culture artifacts – looking back at the top trends, developments, and news stories of 2011. As is always the case, this is a completely subjective exercise, and merely touches on the developments and events that relate to the hobby. [Read more…]