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Lehman art pieces to go under the hammer
By Steve Lodge
Published: August 9 2010 03:39 | Last updated: August 9 2010 03:39
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| ‘The ship Frankfield off Table Bay’ by Samuel Walters |
Hundreds of works of art that adorned the offices of Lehman Brothers, the collapsed investment bank – and some of its corporate memorabilia – are to be sold at auction by Christie’s in London next month.
The September 29 sale is expected to raise about £2m. It is timed to be close to the second anniversary of the bank’s downfall in 2008, said PwC, administrators to Lehman’s UK and European arms.
The collection includes modern art – Gary Hume’s Madonna (estimated to sell at £70,000 to £100,000) and a signed etching by Lucian Freud are among the highlights – and works such as The ship Frankfield off Table Bay by Samuel Walters.
Also in the auction is the corporate sign from the bank’s Canary Wharf offices (estimate £2,000 to £3,000) and the commemorative plaque from the 2004 opening of those offices by Gordon Brown, then chancellor of the exchequer (estimate £1,000 to £1,500).
Tea caddies, cigar boxes and Chinese ceramics are also in the sale.
The most valuable piece, Andreas Gursky’s New York Mercantile Exchange 1991 photograph (estimate £100,000 to £150,000) is being sold in a separate auction in October.
The sale proceeds, however, will be tiny in relation to the more than $600bn (£376bn) owed by Lehman at its collapse.
Last week, hedge funds whose money had not been properly ring-fenced when the bank failed won a court ruling in London to share client funds totalling up to $2bn.
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