Evil Ep’s shunned contacts
No ‘auctioneer’ action
This little black book is too hot to handle.
Auction houses, collectors and true-crime experts see a limited market for Jeffrey Epstein’s “creepy” phone book listing names and numbers of the rich and famous. The scandalous book was used as evidence to help convict the late pedo- phile’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured with Epstein) this week for trafficking underaged girls for sex.
“It is unfathomable that Heritage Auctions or any other reputable auction house would ever offer such a despicable relic,” said Robert Wilonsky, spokesman for Dallas-based Heritage.
“I wouldn’t buy it. Way too creepy for me,” celebrity Las Vegas pawnbroker Rick Harrison of History Channel’s “Pawn Stars” told The Post.
“But I’m sure Bill Clinton would pay millions for it,” he laughed.
The 92-page collection of typed contacts, compiled by Maxwell and Epstein, includes the names and phone numbers of more than 1,000 celebrities, politicians and titans of business.
Prince Andrew, Alec Baldwin, Tony Blair, Michael Bloomberg, Richard Branson, Mick Jagger, Maria Shriver and Peter Soros are among the names listed in the “directory,” as it was called by Epstein and Maxwell.
At least two copies of the directory existed. Staff at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion were told to make sure there was a copy of the directory at both his and Maxwell’s bedsides, according to evidence submitted by prosecutors in her trial. Prosecutors are expected to hold the directory in a secure location pending an appeal from Maxwell. Its future after the appeals process is uncertain. Judge Alison Nathan ruled earlier this month that only a limited amount of material from the British socialite’s contacts book would be released under seal.
Experts say the Epstein/ Maxwell directory seeps into the realm of collectibles associated with heinous crimes, which kills their value.
Appraisal expert Lee David of APR57 in Midtown says he might drop $100,000 on the little black book, and that somebody will eventually want to own it.
But the Manhattan appraiser agrees with Harrison: The book’s greatest value will be to one of the powerful people in it, somebody not yet outed as a possible Epstein/Maxwell client and willing to spend big bucks to avoid embarrassment.