Brooke Astor’s estate under hammer
NEW YORK — Brooke Astor was the immaculately dressed grande dame of New York City, a philanthropist, taste-setter and host extraordinaire, at ease with kings and queens and world leaders.
She adored animals, especially dogs, flowers and books. Floral patterns and animal sculptures were decorative motifs throughout her two sumptuous homes: a 14-room duplex on Park Avenue and her country estate, Holly Hill, overlooking the Hudson River in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.
Sotheby’s is offering the contents of both homes, 901 objects in all, including European and Asian furnishings, Old Masters, Qing Dynasty paintings, tea sets, silverware, jewelry, a porcelain menagerie, over 100 dog paintings — and even the uniforms of her domestic staff — at a two-day auction on Monday and Tuesday. Astor died in 2007 at age 105. In keeping with her wishes and life’s motto that “money is like manure; it should be spread around,” proceeds from the sale will go to the institutions and causes she supported. They include what she called the city’s crown jewels — the New York Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Bronx Zoo, Central Park, plus the Animal Medical Center of New York, New York City’s public schools and charities in Maine.
The collection is expected to fetch a total of $6 million to $9 million.
The auction comes after a nasty family feud involving her only son, Anthony Marshall. The five-year dispute ended in March with a settlement that freed $100 million for her charities and cut by more than half the amount going to Marshall, who was convicted of taking advantage of his mother’s dementia, partly by engineering changes to her will. He has appealed.
“This is a woman who surrounded herself with the things that she loved,” said Elaine Whitmire, vice chairman of Sotheby’s single-owner collections. “You can see it in the upholstery, you can see it in the porcelain that she used, floral, animal and Asian-inspired.”
Hopscotch record set in Detroit
DETROIT — Organizers say they believe they’ve chalked up a new world record in Detroit.
Several groups set out to create the world’s largest hopscotch course in the city on Saturday. They invited artists, community leaders, children, families and businesses to come out and chalk up 22,720 feet worth of Detroit’s sidewalks. That’s a 4.2-mile course, which would be good for a new world record. Mlive.com says the results are being submitted to recoredsetter.com for validation.
Guinness World Records says the longest hopscotch game until now was 3.4 miles set last year in Eden Mills, Ontario. Organizers say their idea is to bring people together in the city and encourage community, play, imagination and the creative use of design.