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Steve Fossett

Steve Fossett items to take off at Leslie Hindman Auctioneers Oct. 30-31

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
Steve Fossett
Michelangelo Anselmi (Italian, 1492-1554), ‘St. Jerome Kneeling in a Landscape with an Angel,’ circa 1540, oil on canvas, 42 x 38 inches. Estimate $40,000-$60,000. Leslie Hindman Auctioneers image

CHICAGO – Leslie Hindman Auctioneers announces will sell property from the estate of Steve and Peggy Fossett. Steve Fossett was a record-setting adventurer and explorer. This landmark collection will be sold at auction Oct. 30-31. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

Steve Fossett was friends with Richard Branson, whose Virgin Group sponsored a number of Fossett’s sailing and aviation attempts. This included the “ultimate flight” when in February 2006 Fossett flew the Virgin GlobalFlyer for the longest uninterrupted and unrefueled aircraft flight in history, covering 25,766 miles. He was the first person to complete a solo circumnavigation of the Earth in a hot air balloon. He broke records of speed and distance as a sailor and was one of the sport’s most prolific distance record holders. He participated in races across many disciplines, including the Iditarod, Ironman and Paris to Dakar Rally. He also swam the English Channel and climbed some of the highest mountains on Earth.

Steve Fossett
An Etruscan terra-cotta antefix, circa early fifth century, length 10 1/8 inches. Estimate $15,000-20,000. Leslie Hindman Auctioneers image

Steve and Peggy Fossett met in 1969 while in college. Their second date took place in a Cessna 172 with Steve as pilot as he participated in an air show. At the time, Peggy didn’t know her future husband would cross the globe in pursuit of adventure but later joked she should have seen it coming. Peggy filled their homes in Carmel, Beaver Creek and Chicago with worldly objects that spoke to their passions. While Steve’s adventures carried him around the world, Peggy, his strongest advocate and supporter, made certain their homes were stylish places of refuge.

Steve Fossett
Circle of Raphael, ‘The Conversion of Saint Paul,’ circa 1520, oil and gold ground panel, trimmed and transferred to canvas, 33¾ x 23¾ inches. Estimate $120,000-180,000. Leslie Hindman Auctioneers image

The first auction, “Worldly Pursuits: An Adventurer’s Collection, The Estate of Steve and Peggy Fossett,” to be held Oct. 30, will include the Fossetts’ collection of antiquities, fine art and Asian works of art. Among the objects being offered, the sale will include a Roman marble figure of Diana (below), circa second century A.D.; significant Old Master paintings: Circle of Raphael, The Conversion of Saint Paul; Circle of Sandro Botticelli, The Madonna and Child with Infant St. John the Baptist; and Michelangelo Anselmi, St. Jerome Kneeling in a Landscape with an Angel. The sale also encompasses furniture and decorative works from their homes.

Steve Fossett
Roman marble Diana Venatrix, circa 2nd century, the goddess of the hunt depicted in quick motion accompanied by her hunting dog, 40 inches high. Estimate $50,000-$80,000. Leslie Hindman Auctioneers image

On Oct. 31, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will present Part I of the sale: “The Adventure & Exploration Library of Steve Fossett.” The sale will offer significant works in the fields of aeronautics, Arctic and Antarctic exploration, circumnavigation and mountaineering. It will feature works relating to some of the most notable figures in the field of exploration, including Capt. James Cook, Charles Darwin, Sir Francis Drake, Alexander von Humboldt, Lewis and Clark, William Schouten and Ernest Shackleton. Highlights include a copy of Barthelemi Faujas de Saint-Fond’s Description des Experiences de la Machine Aerostatique de MM. de Montgolfier, which describes the first manned flight, and a copy of Aurora Australis, the first book printed in Antarctica by Shackleton and his team (below). Part II of the library will be sold in March 2019.

Steve Fossett
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922), ‘Aurora Australis,’ book printed at the Winter Quarters of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907, illustrated with loithographs and etchings by George Marston. Estimate: $60,000-$80,000. Leslie Hindman Auctioneers image

Further selections from the Fossetts’ Beaver Creek home will be sold in Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ Denver saleroom in November.

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Steve Fossett