Who is auctioning this material? My recollection is that when alive, Fischer vehemently denied that he failed to pay the rent due on the storage unit and claimed that the property was still legally his, although it seems he never followed up with bringing legal actions against the company owning the storage unit and/or those to whom, I presume, his property was subsequently sold.
Does whoever is offering the Fischer lot for auction have a legal right to do so, given Fischer's claims when he was alive? I wonder what the legal representatives of Fischer's daughter would have to say about this?
The auction in which the Fischer lot is to be offered is set for June 10, 2009 in New York. Chess collectors must be abuzz with this news!
Sale 17109 - Fine Books and Manuscripts, 10 Jun 2009 New York
Lot No: 3372
FISCHER, ROBERT JAMES “BOBBY.” 1943-2008.
BOBBY FISCHER’S CHESS LIBRARY, INCLUDING NOTEBOOKS PREPARED FOR THE 1972 WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP.
Even stranger - does this auction include materials that were originally offered for auction on e-bay back in 2005, according to this New York Times article:
Arts, Briefly; Bobby Fischer's Stuff At Auction on eBay
By DYLAN LOEB MCCLAIN; COMPILED BY LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
Published: December 16, 2005
(Photo- not included in this archive)
Chess enthusiasts eager to own a bit of the game's history have a unique opportunity, at least for a few more days. Someone is selling several personal effects of Bobby Fischer, the former world champion, on eBay. Most of the collection (one example, above), according to the list on the site, consists of chess books and magazines, many of them foreign, some of them inscribed by Mr. Fischer with his name. Also included are an original manuscript for Mr. Fischer's ''My 60 Memorable Games''; 20 small handwritten notebooks detailing the openings played by some of his top competitors; and legal papers surrounding his attempt to copyright a chess move. In all, the seller says, the trove includes about 16 cardboard boxes full of material. The minimum bid is $15,000, and at least one has been received, from the Netherlands. The auction, which started last Friday, ends on Monday. The seller said the material was bought at a flea market six years ago and evidently came from a storage locker that Mr. Fischer rented in Pasadena, Calif. The contents were seized for nonpayment of rent. Mr. Fischer went into a tirade about it several years ago in a radio interview with a Philippines radio station, saying the seizure was illegal. DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
*****************************************************
So, did the e-bay sale fall through? Or was the sale successful and the lot being offered by Bonham's is not the COMPLETE Bobby Fischer library?
No comments:
Post a Comment