Standing room only as Zsa Zsa bows out

A STANDING room-only online crowd and fans around the world bid more than US $900 000 (nearly R12m) for items in the estate of movie star Zsa Zsa Gabor in Los Angeles.

The proceeds from hundreds of items from Gabor’s personal collection more than tripled expectations, with some lots sold for as much as 40 times the original estimates by Heritage Auctions.

The Hungarian beauty whose nine marriages, gossip-filled adventures and occasional legal scuffles kept her in the tabloids for years, died in December 2016 – two months short of her 100th birthday.

A painting of the star by her friend, artist Margaret Keane, took top-lot honours at $45 000, soaring past its $6 000 estimate.

Strong bidding spurred a 1927 Steinway Model M grand piano from her marriage with actor George Sanders (and used in the 2013 film based on Liberace’s life, Behind the Candelabra) to sell for $23 750. – Auctions Writer