Palm Beach Modern Auctions received a lot of press in the mainstream media in the past few weeks for their red jacket attributed to the classic James Dean film, Rebel Without A Cause. The $400,000-$600,000 pre-sale estimate would imply that the jacket must have been worn by the star during production of the film… Perhaps the provenance supplied by the auction house was unconvincing, since it failed to sell at auction. [Read more…]
A few have written me questioning my article published this week on the second highest results reported on in my review of the most recent auction events by Profiles in History, namely one of the most promoted items in their Hollywood Auction 56 sale event: “Lot 563: Steve McQueen’s signature screen-used “Frank Bullitt” hero tweed sports jacket worn in Bullitt”. This lot is still today reported by their online bidding partner, ArtFact, as having sold for a hammer price of $600,000, which was the low estimate. However, on the official “Prices Realized Detail” published by Profiles in History on their website, Lot 563 is omitted (indicating a passed lot/no sale). Like myself, much of the mainstream media picked up on the result of sold at a hammer price of $600,000 – not passed/unsold – thus I felt a short, stand alone update was warranted, rather than just a correction within my original article (which was also made today), which would go unnoticed to those who read the feature believing that this lot was the second highest hammer result over the two-day “Hollywood Auction 56” auction event. [Read more…]