New York lifts Lehman Brothers' $600k sale

Bankrupt financiers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc sold off the third part of its art auction for $600,000, last week.

Whereas previous Lehman art auctions featured paintings by the likes of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, round three proved most successful in sales of historic prints and lithographs.

Over 60 lithographs and engravings featuring nautical, sporting and landscape themes were for sale, alongside a selection of Audubon ornithological prints.

One-hundred percent of the lots sold, highlights among which included a hand-coloured lithograph of New York City by Currier.


Currier's hand-coloured lithograph of New York City, sold for $12.5k

The landscape realised $12,500 - more than five times its estimate.

Another highlight was a hand-coloured etching by John Hill, depicting New York as viewed from Governor's Island.

Originally valued at $1,200, its sale offered some relief to Lehman by ascending to a final hammer price of $10,800.

According to Freeman's experts, these values were boosted by the provenance of the paintings, many of which hung on the walls of Lehman's offices before it went bust in 2008.

The last Lehman Brothers art sale on November 1 was also a success. Its $1.34m total nearly doubled the pre-sale estimate of $760,800.

Proceeds from each of the sales will go towards clearing the fallen giant's $250bn debt.

 

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