NEW YORK (ACNI and AP) – For the second day in a row, bidders participating online through LiveAuctioneers.com proved to be formidable competitors at Guernsey’s Jan. 13-15 sale of the contents of New York’s Tavern on the Green, claiming 38.8% of the goods offered in the Jan. 14 session.
Because of its worldwide renown, Tavern on the Green’s decorative objects and mementos have spurred unprecedented online bidding interest, said LiveAuctioneers’ CEO Julian R. Ellison.
“The postsale statistics from Guernsey’s Tavern on the Green sale – in terms of dollar value and bidder participation across the board – are the strongest we’ve seen since launching our independent bidding platform,” Ellison said. “In the first two days, alone, online bidders using LiveAuctioneers, including those using the company’s iPhone live-bidding app, have purchased 231 lots totaling well over half a million dollars. Those numbers will only increase after the final auction session on Friday.”
As was the case in the opening-day’s session, Internet bidders proactively pursued the spectacular chandeliers that illuminating Tavern’s dining areas. A 19th-century Austrian-made Osler chandelier of emerald-green molded and cut glass, originally created for the Maharaja of Udaipur, went to an online bidder for $82,350. A Baccarat chandelier with beaded drop pendants also sold through to a Web bidder, for $64,050.
It wasn’t just the Internet buyers who positively impacted the sale’s bottom line. Underbidders played a significant role, as well. During the Wednesday and Thursday sessions, participants using LiveAuctioneers were the underbidders on 47.9% of the lots auctioned. These all-important online underbids (second-highest bids) were responsible for adding $104,850 to the gross.
A fabled Manhattan dining establishment located at the western end of Central Park, Tavern on the Green’s fairyland quality and over-the-top décor had long drawn celebrities and out-of-towners to its six glitzy dining rooms. Past patrons who regularly frequented the Tavern included New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia and actresses Grace Kelly and Fay Wray, among many others.
The beloved landmark served as the finish line of the New York City Marathon, and many Broadway shows held their opening-night festivities there.
On New Year’s Eve 2009, the restaurant prepared its last meal and closed its doors after 75 years, its faded magnificence buckling to the recession. Just three years ago, it was still one of the world’s highest-grossing restaurants, plating more than 700,000 meals a year and taking in about $38 million annually. It was the second-highest-grossing independently owned American restaurant, trailing only The Venetian’s Tao Room in Las Vegas.
Mired in debt, Tavern on the Green filed bankruptcy in 2009 and consigned its entire collection to auction. Everything goes – from the kitschy chandeliers of capitalism to a banner touting the motto of communism.
A former sheepfold off Central Park West, Tavern sits on city property. Warner LeRoy, son of Hollywood producer/director Mervyn LeRoy, took over its operating license in 1973, refurbishing the restaurant with whimsical objects purchased around the world. From the Soviet Union came a red velvet banner with the image of Lenin, inscribed in the Cyrillic Russian alphabet with the international communist motto, “Workers of all nations, unite!”
LeRoy died in 2001 and his daughter, Jennifer LeRoy, became the establishment’s CEO.
“The food was kind of mediocre, but that’s not why you came here,” said Frances Rickard, a real estate broker tickling the ivories of a Yamaha grand she was considering. “When you wanted to be kitschy, you brought your out-of-town relatives here for a little bit of bizarreness.”
Rickard said she had to be careful about what she might buy “because there’s not much here that would fit into my Manhattan apartment. It’s all so grandiose.”
The restaurant’s most precious item – its name – is not on the block. The moneymaking words “Tavern on the Green,” valued at about $19 million, are in court. A federal judge is to decide whether Dean Poll, the restaurateur who is taking over the space, can call his new business by its famed old name.
View the fully illustrated catalog for the Jan. 15 session of the Tavern on the Green sale and bid live via the Internet at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
# # #
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
