It was a white-glove Christmas auction of singer and actor Bing Crosby’s personal collection, which made a 100% sell-through rate and $6.7m at Sotheby’s in New York last night against an estimate of $3.9m to $6.3m (totals include buyer’s premium; estimates do not).
Among the most festive lots were the musical arrangements for Crosby’s 1954 hit musical film, White Christmas, which flew six times over the low estimate to fetch $19,050. Crosby amassed his collection, comprising everything from fine art to Fabergé, together with his wife, the actress Kathryn Crosby, who died last year. Her ivory matelassé and fox fur evening coat, worn for the Bing Crosby Christmas Show, sold for $1,524 (est $500–$800).
Other highlights included a Tiffany & Co silver-gilt cigarette box gifted to Crosby by the former US president John F. Kennedy, which soared to $15,240, more than five times its high estimate. The box commemorates JFK’s 1962 visit to Crosby’s Palm Springs home after plans to convene at Frank Sinatra’s residence changed at the last minute. In his biography, Donald Spoto claims that Marilyn Monroe told friends she slept with Kennedy during that visit, though Kennedy always denied he had an affair with the actress. A Sheraton-style grand piano, famously used in the film High Society starring Crosby, soared to $95,250 (est $20,000–$30,000) after a nearly five-minute battle between six bidders.
A Fabergé Jewelled Sapphire Model of a Mouse, St Petersburg (around 1900)
Courtesy of Sotheby's
The top prices were achieved for paintings by Sir Alfred James Munnings ($1.2m) and Charles Marion Russell and a rare Fabergé sapphire model of a mouse, which fetched $355,600, more than five times its high estimate.
The sale rounds out a successful first season for Sotheby’s in its new Breuer building headquarters, which has been marked by blockbusting single-owner auctions. Last month, the auction house brought in $1.2bn, largely thanks to three major collections: the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, the Pritzker Collection and the Exquisite Corpus Collection. According to data compiled by Pi-eX, Sotheby’s revenue expanded 120% in the November sales solely due to these three estate auctions. Across Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips, single-owner private collection sales generated $962m in New York last month, up 132% year-on-year and representing 43% of total revenue.