Pain of parting with art offset by $7.4 million
November 10th, 2005
Works by Jeff Koons and Paul McCarthy were among those sold by Germany’s “punk princess.”
Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis likes motorcycles and rock stars, lavish parties and jewels. She is known among the international jet set as the “punk princess” who collects contemporary art. But sometimes, she cleans house.
On Monday night she put 50 works by some of today’s trendiest artists — including Jeff Koons, Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman and Paul McCarthy — up for sale at Phillips, dePury & Co. (Phillips auctioned 85 more works from her collection on Tuesday morning.)
Although the princess was not in attendance at Phillips’ Chelsea salesroom Monday, her two daughters, Elisabeth and Maria Theresia, were there, videotaping the proceedings. Their mother will no doubt be pleased by what she sees.
The sale totaled $6.3 million, or $7.4 million with Phillips’ commission. (Prices of record include the commission.) The high estimate was $7 million.
In 1993 the princess held a nine-day sale of furniture, art and objects from Schloss St. Emmeram, the family castle in Regensburg, Bavaria — everything from a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to 75,000 bottles of vintage wine.
That sale, which brought more than $19 million, went to pay inheritance taxes on the estate of her husband, Prince Johannes, who died in 1990.
In 1992, she had already sold much of the family jewels, also at Sotheby’s. Simon de Pury, chairman of Phillips, then chairman of Sotheby’s in Europe, presided over both events, and he and the princess became friends.
