A year for weird lots

South African auctioneering scuttlebutt says a higher than usual quota of weird and wonderful has found its way under the hammer over the past year, along with a bushel of downright odd lots.

Bidding was fierce across the stranger catalogue items offered by auction houses affiliated with the SA Institute of Auctioneers (SAIA), according to its public relations director Joff van Reenen. These comprised a vast ocean-going tanker, a treasure trove of memorabilia from the hit TV series Black Sails, a mayoral mansion, a mechanically-challenged bakkie, a hot Hollywood sale that raised a whack for charity and a new business venture that scores of investors were keen to buy.

While the tanker and property lots earned the biggest bucks for their sellers, the auction of the sets from Black Sails was one of the crowd-pullers of the year.

Angela Duncan of Alf Duncan Auctioneers in Cape Town says: “Nautical novelties under the hammer included canons and rigs, bells, belfries, binnacles, anchors, flags, gangplanks and galley equipment,” says Duncan.

Ariella Kuper, MD and co-founder of online auctioneers Clear Asset, landed a bumper lot when the company sold an oil tanker in December that had been under judicial arrest in Durban Harbour for 18 months.

Chinese bidder eventually won the auctionwhen the hammer fell at US$12 million.