Some Memorabilia Records

As you know, I like to post on property sales which have sold for premiums based upon historical significance, provenance and ownership.

This past week was an interesting one with some new record prices and strong sales.  First and perhaps most importantly, we saw Jesse Owen's 1936 Olympic medal from the Berlin games sell for a record $1.47 million. This was about 5 times higher than the existing record paid in 2010 for Mark Wells' Olympic gold won in the 1980 US game.

Additionally we saw another record set with the sale of Bob Dylan's 1964 Fender Stratocaster selling for $965,000.00.  This was a new record for any guitar selling at auction. The guitar was unique in that it was played by Dylan during his first electric performance as he moved away from his earlier acoustic folk style.

Those two were not the only memorabilia related sales, as Bruce Springsteen's first draft of his hit song Born to Run from his 1975 album of the same name sold at Sotheby's for $197,000 against an estimate of $70,000-$100,000. Although not a record, it was a considerable sale.

ESPN reports on the Owens Olympic gold medal sale

A gold medal awarded to Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin sold for $1,466,574 early Sunday morning, the highest price ever paid for a piece of Olympic memorabilia.

The price paid shattered the previous record of $865,000 paid last April for a silver cup won by the winner of the first modern-day Olympic marathon in 1896. It also sold for nearly five times the highest price previously paid for a gold medal won by a member of the U.S Olympic team -- Mark Wells' gold from the 1980 ice hockey team sold for $310,700 in 2010.

The auction house said the buyer wished to remain anonymous.

The Owens gold medal was consigned to SCP Auctions by the estate of Elaine Plaines-Robinson, the wife of entertainer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, a close friend of Owens who died in 1949.

"We are honored to handle what we consider to be among the most inspiring sports artifacts ever offered at auction," said SCP president David Kohler. "Worldwide attention garnered by the auction of Jesse Owens 1936 Gold medal and the extraordinary auction result proves that Owens' triumphant legacy continues to endure."

Since neither the medal nor what it was stored in had any markings, it is not clear which gold medal this is.

Owens, who was 23 at the time, famously won four gold medals, in the 100- and 200-meter dash, the long jump and as a member of the 4x100 meter relay team, with Hitler looking on as host of the Games. It is unclear where the other three originals are, as the four gold medals from these Games that reside at Ohio State, where Owens attended college, are replacement medals. The German government had them made after Owens was said to have lost his originals.

Other top items that sold in the SCP Auction included a Jackie Robinson bat believed to have been used in the 1955 World Series ($128,617), Goose Gossage's 1978 Yankees World Series ring ($66,734), a Muhammad Ali robe from a 1976 fight ($60,667), and Shane Victorino's grand slam ball from Game 6 of this year's ALCS ($18,840).

Source: ESPN

 CNN reports on the Dylan guitar sale

A guitar once owned by music legend Bob Dylan sold for $965,000 Friday at Christie's, setting a new world auction record for any guitar, according to a statement from the auction house.

The 1964 Fender Stratocaster was purchased by an unidentified bidder, said a Christie's spokesperson.

Dylan, now 72, played the electric guitar in his famous performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, during which he was backed by an electric band for the first time, according to the statement. He was 24 years, and on the road to establishing himself as a music icon, the statement said.

"A tremendous amount of international interest was generated at the time of the sale's announcement, and today's result justifies the mythic status of this guitar in the annals of music history," said Tom Lecky, Christie's specialist and the sale's auctioneer.

Along with the guitar and original Fender case, newly discovered song lyrics by Dylan were also auctioned, according to Christie's. The items were left behind on a private plane months after the 1965 performance. In 2011, the daughter of the plane's pilot submitted the items to the PBS show "History Detectives" for authentication, according to the statement from Christie's.

The selling price of the guitar almost doubled the estimated range of $300,000 to $500,000, according to Christie's.
Previously, Eric Clapton's Fender "Blackie" held the record for a guitar sold at an auction, going for $959,500 in 2004, Christie's spokeswoman told CNN.

A month after receiving France's most prestigious medal, the Legion d'honneur, Dylan is now being investigated in Paris on suspicion of inciting racial hatred, according to French prosecutors. The investigation was prompted by comments he made in Rolling Stone magazine in 2012.

 Source:  CNN

CBS reports on the Springsteen "Born to Run" draft

Rocker Bruce Springsteen's 1974 handwritten draft of his hit song "Born to Run" has sold for $197,000, auctioneers Sotheby's said on Thursday.

Springsteen's "Born to Run," the title song from his 1975 album of the same name, has become an essential American anthem, and the draft, written in the singer's cursive hand in blue ink, fetched more than double its estimate of $70,000 to $100,000 at a New York sale.

The one notebook page of lyrics shows Springsteen's creative process for the song.

While many of the lyrics on the working draft were later changed or dropped, his famous line, "Tramps like us, baby, we were born to run," is included.

"This was done in 1974 when he was going through preparing for his third album," Richard Austin, head of Sotheby's books and manuscripts department, told Reuters ahead of the sale.

"And there is a story he tells about sitting on the edge of his bed with his guitar and the phrase 'born to run' comes into his head. And what you are actually looking at is the process he goes through to get to the finished song."

It took Springsteen six months to complete "Born to Run," and when it was released, the song helped make the New Jersey singer "The Boss," one of the greatest rock stars of all time.

The lyrics were sold as part of Sotheby's Fine Books and Manuscripts sale on Thursday, which brought in more than $3.7 million from 176 lots.

The auction included a letter from John Lennon, a series of love letters from Mick Jagger, as well as works from William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Jefferson.

Source: CBS