Results: Sothebys Sells Collection of Patricia Kluge

The two day on site auction from the collection of Patricia Kluge at Albemarle House in Charlottesville, VA totaled $15.16 million including buyers premium. This was against a pre sale estimate of $9 to $14 million. The sale continues to show that quality and provenance means high prices. Sotheby's reports that over 2,000 people visited the home during the week long exhibition. Over 900 lots were offered with 88% of the lots selling and over 61% of the lots selling for over the pre sale high estimate.

The top selling lot was an Imperial Chinese Table Clock from the Guangzhou Workshops, Qing Dynasty, Quianlong period and sold for $3.77 million, which was over three times the high estimate of $1 million and was the third highest amount paid at auction for this form of clock (see image). The purchaser was a Chinese private collector.

Sotheby's stated

In addition to the clock, a number of spectacular prices were achieved during the first day of the auction, including a Pair of Classical Landscapes by Hubert Robert, which brought $434,500 (lot 99, est. $200/300,000); a Set of Six Holland & Holland Wildfowl and Wader Guns, which achieved $350,500 (lot 62, est. $330/500,000); a Fabergé Silver Centerpiece, which totaled $206,500 (lot 196, est. $40/60,000); and an Important George III Mahogany Commode attributed to Thomas Chippendale, which sold for $338,500 (lot 67, est. $400/600,000).

Works across a number of different categories also achieved prices well in excess of their estimates: An Ivory Silvered and Gilt-Bronze-Mounted Mother-of-Pearl, Inlaid Alabaster and Onyx Chess Set, probably Italian, circa 1900, sold for $98,500, soaring past the high estimate of $10,000 (lot 280, est. $7/10,000); a set of The Lord of the Rings (Trilogy) Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, J.R. Tolkien, London, 1954, brought $17,500 (lot 337, est. $4/6,000); a Group of Ten English Silver Birds, Asprey, London, 1987 sold for $74,500, (lot 201, est. $5/8,000); a Pair of Ormolu-Mounted Meissen Porcelain Figures of Seated Pug Dogs sold for $86,500 (lot 121, est. $25/35,000) and a Fragmentary Bronze Portrait Head of the Emperor Augustus, or a member of the Julio-Claudian Family, Roman Imperial, circa early 1st Century AD, sold for $188,500 (lot 344, est. $100/1500,000).

The Associated Press reported

Sotheby's previewed the 900-item collection for a week before the sale, and more than 2,000 visitors who paid $65 for the 620-page auction book attended the public exhibition to examine the collection at the 23,000-square-foot (2,136-sq. meter) English country manor.

The preview and auction also was a showcase for the 45-room brick Georgian, which also is on the market. Kluge acquired Albemarle House, its accouterments and 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) in the settlement of her 1990 divorce from billionaire media mogul John W. Kluge. The couple had been married for nine years.

Sotheby's International Realty has listed the estate at $48 million, reduced from $100 million last fall. The property also includes about 300 acres (121 hectares), multilevel English gardens and fountains, a swimming pool and a rustic guest cabin.

Kluge and her husband, William Moses, have moved to a 6,400-square-foot (594-sq. meter) home elsewhere on the estate grounds. She said that they wanted to scale back so they can focus on traveling and running their winery business.