• Beach Boys memorabilia found in storage locker goes up for auction

    Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP

    A musical manuscript of "California Girls" is one of the Beach Boys items to be auctioned.

    By RJ Cubarrubia, Rolling Stone

    A massive collection of Beach Boys memorabilia is up for auction, with goodies including what seems to be the band's first royalty check for $990, handwritten scores for hits like "Good Vibrations," personal photos and letters and dozens of signed contracts. The collection was discovered at a Florida storage facility and was sold unopened to a buyer after a long run of missed storage payments, the The Associated Press reports. The buyer found quite the surprise upon opening the boxes.

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    The items are being sold as one unit and are expected to bring in several million dollars. "We thought it would be a crime to break it up," said Ted Owen of the Fame Bureau, the London-based firm leading the auction. Owen touts the collection as unique because of the handwritten scores that showcase Brian Wilson's arranging and songwriting talents.

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    "What's striking is just how creative and detailed it is," Owen said. "You get the notes, then you move into the music sheets, he does the horn construction, the violin construction, you see the song development. This is right from the beginning --  well thought-out melodies, well thought-out harmonies. It's an inside view of the construction of songs, and his genius, really."

    The items appear to have been placed in the storage unit for safekeeping in the mid-Seventies by a relative of a band member. The Beach Boys attempted to secure legal ownership of the memorabilia, but Owen said the archives were ruled a fair find and the rights are all clear for sale. The band is not too thrilled about the situation.


    "I can confirm that the band is aware of the auction," Beach Boys representative Jay Jones said. "The band will not be available for interviews in regards to this matter." The auction ends May 15th. 

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  • Rare Beatles Shea Stadium photos auctioned for nearly $47,000

    Getty Images

    Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison of The Beatles.

    By Miriam Coleman, Rolling Stone

    A rare set of photographs taken at the Beatles' 1965 concert at Shea Stadium have just sold at auction for £30,680 (around $46,700).

    The BBC reports that the pictures were snapped by an amateur photographer named Marc Weinstein, who used a fake press pass to get backstage at the Beatles' biggest show. The historic New York concert drew more 55,000 fans, but there was only one other photographer present – and he ran out of film.

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    In a 2009 interview, Weinstein described how he bluffed his way backstage:

    "(I) had my press pass that was a phony press pass I made up," he said. "When I walked in there and I walked up to the first police officer I saw and ...  I said (puts on English accent), ‘Excuse me, sir, I’m with the Beatles entourage and I got separated from the group. Can you help me to the stage, please?’ And he looked at me and he said, ‘Sure, follow me.’ And I was stunned. (Laughs.) He ate the whole thing. He started, ‘Hey, guys, move out of the way. This guy is with the group. I’m taking him out there.’ And I just followed him."

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    The set of 61 black-and-white photos were put up for sale by Omega Auctions on Friday, the 50th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' first album, "Please Please Me."  They fetched far more than the pre-sale estimate of £15,000-£20,000. According to the auctioneer, the photographs were purchased by "a South American gentleman currently living in Washington (who) is a huge collector of Beatles memorabilia."

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  • Signed 'Sgt. Pepper' Beatles album rockets past predicted auction price

    AP Photo/Heritage Auctions

    The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album autographed by all four members of the band.

    By Rolling Stone

    A copy of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" autographed by all four Beatles up for auction has already surpassed its estimated price by tens of thousands of dollars, The Associated Press reports.

    Bidding began at $15,000 with the Dallas-based Heritage Auctions expecting the copy to sell for about $30,000. Early bidding, however, has already pushed the price to $110,500. The auction itself is set for March 30th, and the house says the price could exceed $150,000 by then.

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    Each respective Beatle penned his name above his head on the record's gatefold, and the auction company's consignment director Gary Shrum says the bidding has "taken on a life of its own."  He added that the spike in the record's cost could be do to the rarity of such a high quality autograph and that "people are responding to that."


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    In other Beatles auction news, it was announced Thursday that a custom-built VOX guitar played by both George Harrison and John Lennon around the time of "Magical Mystery Tour" would be up for sale at Julien's Auctions on May 18th in New York, and is expected to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000. 

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  • Monet sells for $44 million, Kandinsky fetches record price at art auction

    By Reuters

    A Monet water lilies painting sold for nearly $43.8 million on Wednesday while a Kandinsky fetched an artist's record $23 million as Christie's kicked off the auction season with a sale that saw many mid-level works failing to find buyers.

    "Nympheas," one of Monet's iconic water lilies from 1905, executed during his years at Giverny, had been estimated to sell for $30 million to $50 million, and just managed its middle range with a final price of $43,762,500 including commission.

    Wassily Kandinsky's "Studie fur Improvisation 8," meanwhile, hit the low end of its $20 million to $30 million estimate, and set a new auction record for the Russian artist. The vibrant work was being sold by Switzerland's Volkart Foundation.

    But 30 percent of the 69 works on offer failed to sell when bids failed to reach the reserve, the secret price at which a client has agreed to sell a work. 

    In all the auction took in a total of just under $205 million, missing the low pre-sale estimate of about $210 million (estimates do not include commission charges of about 12 percent). The high estimate was about $315 million. 

    Christie's nonetheless said it was pleased with the results. 

    Handout / Reuters

    Wassily Kandinsky's "Studie fur Improvisation 8."

    "It was very, very strong sale, with great results" for top lots including the Monet, and a Brancusi sculpture "Une muse," which sold for $12.4 million, said Brooke Lampley, head of Impressionist and modern art. 

    "Classic Impressionism performed really well tonight." 

    Lampley also noted that the sale's unusually high percentage of discretionary selling -- when collectors decide to sell, versus estate sales that happen because the owner is deceased -- was "very much a sign that collectors are feeling confident in the market. They are choosing to sell," which she said was a testament to the increasing strength of art as an asset class.

    But the atmosphere in the room was muted and for works that sold, bidding was steady but far from unbridled. Bidders tried to cut increments in half from the next solicited bid, and the salesroom was more than half empty before the sale ended.

    Officials privately attributed the relatively high percentage of works that failed to sell -- nearly one third -- chiefly to a single collection whose owner was unwilling to lower the reserve prices in the days leading up to the sale. 


    In all, six lots sold for more than $10 million each. Other highlights included Miro's "Peinture (Femme, Journal, Chien), which went for $13.75 million, and Picasso's "Buste de femme," and oil on canvas that at $13 million was one of the few works to beat its pre-sale estimate handily. 

    Proceeds from the Monet sale will benefit a private prep school in Tarrytown, N.Y., which received the work in a bequest.

    Two Giacometti sculptures, "La Jambe" and "Tete sur tige," fetched $11.3 million and $6.8 million respectively.

    Among casualties were a Picasso sculpture, "Coq," estimated at $10 million to $15 million, and works by Chagall and Degas, the latter estimated to sell for as much as $10 million. 

    The auctions continue on Thursday when Sotheby's holds its sale of Impressionist and modern art, which it postponed from Monday due to Superstorm Sandy which hit the region last week. 

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  • Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood auctions off memorabilia, artwork

    courtesy Julien's Auctions

    Ronnie Wood's Fender guitar, recently auctioned off.

    By Miriam Coleman, Rolling Stone

    A selection of memorabilia and artwork owned by Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood and his ex-wife, Jo Wood, went up for auction at a two-day sale over the weekend, Reuters reports.

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    The collection, presided over by Julien's Auctions in Beverly Hills, featured items spanning four decades of Wood's career in music, including clothing, instruments, and tour ephemera. Among the prizes were a 1955 Fender Stratocaster guitar that Wood played onstage, which sold for $60,800. A cardboard cutout of a guitar that Keith Richards had given to Wood sold for $6,875.

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    The auction also included a lithograph that Wood drew of Eric Clapton, signed by both Wood and Clapton, which sold for $5,120.


    Ronnie and Jo Wood separated in 2008 after 23 years of marriage; Julien's said that the items were being sold as part of the divorce settlement, which was finalized in 2011. A portion of the auction's proceeds will go to the musicians' charity MusiCares.

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  • Let the bidding begin! Treasures from Hollywood icons hit the block

    Mark Mainz / Getty Images file

    The late Rue McClanahan's items are just some of what's going on the auction block this month.

    By Randee Dawn, TODAY contributor

    There are holiday gifts, and there are holiday gifts. Just in time for the biggest gift-giving extravaganza of the year, the estates of three legendary Hollywood figures have opened up their coffers, so shoppers take care -- you're going to have to open up your wallets and purses even wider if you want some of these unique items.

    First off, the son of late "Golden Girls" star Rue McClanahan, Mark Bish, is fulfilling his mother's wish to share her belongings with her fans. According to Fox News, Bish will launch a series of auctions beginning Dec. 17 around the country, the first of which will feature the contents of her living room from her New York City apartment. Along with furniture and artwork, expect plenty of entertainment memorabilia and "Golden Girls" outfits, jewelry, scripts and even the purse she took to the 1996 Emmys.

    Also included: What she called "doodles" and what fellow "Golden Girls" star Betty White is quoted in the article as calling "artwork." She also saved "doodles" made by a guest star on the show -- a young George Clooney. 

    Auction bidding can be done at Hutter Auction Galleries in person, on the phone, or at www.liveauctioneers.com.

    For those looking to own not just a nice piece of showbiz memorabilia but an actual iconic item, Nate D. Sanders Auctions is putting Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" Oscar on the block. Welles wrote, directed and starred in what The American Film Institute called the top film in the past 100 years.

    "Kane" won Welles his one and only Academy Award, 1941's Best Writing, Original Screenplay Oscar. (He was awarded an Academy Honorary Award for his contribution to motion pictures in 1971.)

    While alive, Welles thought he had lost the statuette, but it resurfaced after his death, bequeathed to his daughter Beatrice. A court battle ensued with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to prevent her from selling it; since 1950 winners have had to sign a paper which allows the Academy to buy back any Oscar for $1 before it goes to the free market; during the 2002 court case, the statuette was valued at $1 million. Beatrice won her right to sell the Oscar.

    The auction ends Dec. 20; bids can be placed online at www.NateDSanders.com or on the phone.

    Mark Porter, from Christie's Americas, gives TODAY's Savannah Guthrie a look at some of Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry and fashion items, such as an emerald diamond pendant and wedding dress.

    And finally, Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry and art are going up for sale in New York City Tuesday night at Christie's auction house. But according to Forbes, you'll really need to stretch those dollars to take home some of her baubles -- items up for grabs include a diamond bracelet given to her by Michael Jackson (estimated price: $30,000-$50,000) and a 33.19-carat diamond ring she received from Richard Burton and wore every day. That is expected to go for as much as $3.5 million.

    Later this week other sales of her art, clothing and memorabilia will go live, with part of the proceeds going to The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which she established in 1991. And in February of next year, her collection of impressionist and modern art will go on sale at Christie's in London.

    Let's start shopping!

    Do you think you'll bid on something? Tell us what in the comments!

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