Spencer Family Selling Rubens

The family of Diana, Princess of Wales is selling off many Spencer family items, including a Rubens valued at 8/12 million GBP. Scott Reyburn of Bloomberg reports Christie's will be handling the Spencer family sale, and the total is expected to bring close to $29 million.  According to Reyburn, the Spencers were convinced it was a good time to sell as some old masters, especially those with the best names have been doing extremely well.

Reyburn reports

The trustees are also selling items that furnished Spencer House, in London’s St. James’s district -- which the family vacated in the 1920s.

On July 8, Christie’s will offer more than 40 lots of 18th- century English and French furniture, porcelain and decorative objects. These include a set of 12 George II mahogany dining chairs designed by Spencer House architect John Vardy, valued at as much as 1 million pounds.

The sale will “help the Althorp Estate to thrive for generations to come,” the trustees said in Christie’s statement. Althorp is having a 10 million-pound re-roofing and restoration project.

Diana Exhibition

“Diana: A Celebration,” an exhibition commemorating the life of the sister of Charles, 9th Earl Spencer, has been an attraction at the much-altered 16th-century house since 1998.

Christie’s has yet to set a date for its sale of the Spencer family’s collection of more than a dozen 19th-century carriages and other items it is removing from Althorp’s attics, cellars and stables.

“The ‘Attic’ sale is to do with good housekeeping,” Rock said in an interview. “The Trustees want to keep the key objects that are important to the original family collection. There are a lot of things that have been kept in storage since the 1920s and their condition isn’t improving.”

Bidders will be lured by lots such as a two-seat Regency- period coach used by Lord and Lady Spencer for state occasions, estimated at 50,000 pounds to 80,000 pounds. The ‘Attic’ auction, whose contents have yet to be confirmed, will also include everyday items such as watering cans that may have been used by Diana when growing up.

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