Marshal Service to Auction Madoff Property

Juliet Chung of the Wall Street Journal is reporting that this Saturday the U.S. Marshal Service will auction personal property previously owned by jailed investment banker Bernard Madoff. The sale will be held at the New York Sheraton Hotel & Towers in New York City and will include watches, designer handbags, furs and clothing and even stationary once owned by Madoff.

The auctions low estimate for the near 200 items of Madoff property is $500,000.00. This is a rather small amount compared to the $65 billion estimate to be involved in the Ponzi scheme managed by Madoff.

It will be interesting to see if the values exceed expectations and there is a bump in prices due to the connection and ownership by Madoff.  Sale like these are always good to track for comparison and parallel items for valuation adjustments based on items of historical or owner significance.

Chung reports

A collection of more than 40 watches, including some women's watches, 17 Rolexes and several Audemars Piguets, Franck Mullers and Jaeger-LeCoultres, will be auctioned off. Big-ticket items include an 18-karat yellow gold, black-faced vintage men's Rolex, the Monoblocco, valued between $75,000 and $87,500 and a pair of Victorian-era diamond earrings estimated to fetch between $14,000 and $21,400. "It's a pretty rare watch and it's pretty desirable," says Julien Schaerer of Antiquorum Auctioneers SA. If the piece is entirely original, he adds, he sees it selling for $75,000 to $100,000.

Also on the auction block: five fur coats by designers including J. Mendel and Bill Blass, Christofle flatware, Tiffany placecard holders and three polo-style shirts monogrammed with the name of one of Mr. Madoff's yachts, "Bull." More-understated souvenirs include three wooden duck decoys, visible in photos of the couple's Montauk home, valued between $53 and $80.

The items became government property in early July when the U.S. Marshals Service took custody of Mr. Madoff's homes. The government has been trying to sell Mr. Madoff's homes and now will auction some personal effects.

To read the full WSJ article, click HERE.