Ginsburg auction raises $803,650
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’s silver tea set is going to a family with a 5-year-old daughter who once was Ginsburg for Halloween. A medal Ginsburg was awarded when inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame is going to a family that demonstrated recently for reproductive rights.
All told, an online auction of 150 of items owned by the late justice raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera, one of the late justice’s passions. The auction ended in late April, and buyers are now picking up items or arranging to have them shipped to their homes in 38 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Germany. Winning bids ranged from $850 to $55,000.
Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, the owner of The Potomack Co. auction house in Virginia, said they were “just really blown away by the interest.”
Ginsburg died of cancer at age 87 in September 2020. In her later years, the court’s second female justice and liberal icon also become a pop culture figure known as the “Notorious RBG.” In January, an online auction of her books brought in $2.3 million, almost 30 times the pre-sale estimate.
Washington National Opera artistic director Francesca Zambello, a friend of Ginsburg ’s, said the auction’s proceeds will be “a huge help this year as we try to cultivate the return of our audience” amid the lingering coronavirus pandemic.
The auction’s biggest ticket item was the drawing of Ginsburg, which sold for $55,000. The image had accompanied a 2015 article about her in The New York Times.