A US weather vane

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The news was forwarded to me by one of my Google search engines, which endeavoured to find a local website of Virginia, inRich.com, meaning "in Richmond."

In January, during the traditional week of Americana sales in New York, Sotheby's will sell a copper weather vane made around 1840 that decorated the roof of Winchester, Va. fire station.

This work shows a fire fighter, a little larger than life, an arm in the direction of the wind. The object was damaged by paint in the years 1950's and by bullet holes. After repair, Sotheby's expects $ 3 million.

A story read in the Richmond article is particularly fun: there were, as always in all countries, supporters and opponents of this sale. The pros won, because once the estimate was known there was no available money to pay the insurance required for an object of such a high price. To quiet everybody, a donor is currently paying for a reproduction.

To increase credibility to the estimate, our friends in Richmond indicate a previous auction result, which I found afterwards on the site of Sotheby's. On October 6, 2006, a more recent weathervane representing an Indian chief, with a very dynamic shape, was sold $ 5.8 million charge included from a low estimate of $ 100 K. It was covered with verdigris, with traces of paint.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The gain of 2006 had generated vertigo to both the seller and the auction house. The vane of 2009 remained unsold. This shows (once again) that the exceptional auction bids should not be taken into account in preparing both the estimates ... and the reserve price.