Profiles in History’s Summer auction catalog, “Treasure from the Vaults” (or Hollywood Auction 49) – coinciding with the ‘Drier Collection, Part 1’ and ‘Animation Auction’ sales the days prior – is now available in print as well as online, via their official site. This portion of their larger auction is scheduled for July 30th to 31st at their Calabasas Hills facility.
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As noted in recent articles (see Profiles in History Pledges More Transparency; Open Q&A On Website Regarding Provenance, Authenticity, Other Questions and Profiles in History Pledges More Transparency: Update & Response to “What We Are Currently Working On”), Profiles in History’s General Manager, Fong Sam, has written about embracing what they call “the concept of auctions as peer review” with regards to “verifying provenance” of material listed for public sale in their auction catalogs on his haxbee.com site. With their upcoming sale, The Dreier Collection, Part 1, a few principals in our art market have raised questions with me privately with regards to one of the items listed for auction, Lot 106 GEORGE REEVES “SUPERMAN” CAPE FROM THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN. Since the suggested resource on the Profiles in History website has yet to be created, I thought I would publish those questions raised with me in this article as part of the public “peer review” process with Profiles in History. [Read more…]
Profiles in History’s ‘Drier Collection, Part 1’ auction catalog is now available in print as well as online, via their official site. This auction is scheduled for July 28th at their Calabasas Hills facility. [Read more…]
As a follow-up to the public dialogue last month between myself and Fong Sam, the General Manager for Profiles in History (see “Profiles in History Pledges More Transparency; Open Q&A On Website Regarding Provenance, Authenticity, Other Questions”), Fong has published a new response today on his Haxbee.com site (see “What We Are Currently Working On”). Though this was touched on as closing out one of many topics, I thought it would be productive to reply with further thoughts and opinions on my part. I am pleased to see that the topic is still under deliberations at Profiles and hope that it will eventually result in some kind of additional communications platform between them, their customers, and other interested parties. [Read more…]
Fong Sam, General Manager at auction house Profiles in History, yesterday published an interesting article on his haxbee.com website about “the concept of auctions as peer review“, in response to a question at a panel at C2E2 (where they held their Captain America auction) about “verifying provenance“. While Fong’s article covered a number of different topics, and referenced the concept of transparency, I thought it might be a valid exercise to ask a question/make a suggestion, to explore the possibility of the company making real steps forward in this regard. Based on Fong’s preliminary response, it sounds as though they may actually implement a feature on their website where questions about the material that they sell can be publicly asked and answered, to the benefit of all. If this should actually happen, I will be the first to applaud such a change in how they conduct business. [Read more…]
It would appear that auction house Profiles in History had an unbelievable success with their Captain America: The First Avenger Auction event this past weekend, on behalf of Marvel Studios. The stand out single sale, of course, was “Lot #154 Captain Amerca complete hero suit“, which sold for $233,700 ($190,000 hammer plus $43,700 Buyer’s Premium). Over a quarter of a million dollars for one of presumably multiple copies of a costume from a movie that was released nine months ago. I am not easily surprised by anything in this art market, but this I find astounding and shocking. And my first thought immediately went to a concept discussed on this site in the past – the “Hype Premium” – but even that cannot come close to explaining this auction result.
HollywoodPatch today published a report that Erik Anderson filed a lawsuit against Profiles in History, Joe Maddalena, and producers Shevick*Zupon Entertainment and Zupon Entertainment over the idea for their SyFy television series, Hollywood Treasure. Per their article, Mr. Anderson claims to have pitched Mr. Maddalena the idea for a show with the same concept, which he called Hollywood Forgotten, in October 2009, and he also published four episodes of his show on YouTube. [Read more…]
Profiles in History is working with Marvel Entertainment to hold a special auction for original props, costumes, set pieces, vehicles, and other production material from ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ (2011), along with a few special bonus pieces from ‘Thor’ (2011) and ‘Iron Man 2’ (2010). The catalog can be viewed at the Profiles in History website in what appears to be embedded iCollector auction software . Their auction will be held during the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2) at McCormick Place on April 14th. Joss Whedon’s highly anticipated ‘Avengers’ movie will be released theatrically in the U.S. just a few weeks later, on May 4th. [Read more…]