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Polaroid Collection: Update 26

These two dozen works from the Polaroid Collection included in the upcoming April 4 auction represent a very small selection from the almost 700 items consigned to Swann. Keep in mind that while a few of these items were withdrawn from the Sotheby’s auction due to protest by the artists, Sotheby’s skimmed the cream off the collection for those sales. What’s left, then, are either the few globules of fat left floating on the surface or else the best of the skimmed milk that remains — from the perspective of the secondary market, that is. (I’d consider all of this group of works historically significant and museum-worthy, though some of it primarily as study material.) […]

Polaroid Collection: Update 25

At the request of court-appointed Trustee John R. Stoebner, charged with the task of recovering as much money as possible for the creditors of the collapsed Ponzi scheme created by the now-jailed Tom Petters, the Minnesota Bankruptcy Court has approved the transfer of the cluster of works known collectively known as the “Sotheby’s Assets” from Sotheby’s in New York City to Swann Auction Galleries in the same metropolis, for inclusion in a series of auctions, beginning with one coming up in April 2012. […]

Polaroid Collection: Done Deals

There were no bids made on the photographs still at Sotheby’s. This cluster, named the “Sotheby’s Assets” by the court, had a minimum bid figure of $556,750 during the earlier bidding period. It’s my understanding that this lot includes some 685 works, among them the ones withdrawn just prior to the auction due to the campaign to stop the auction, those that went unsold at the auction, and presumably some others brought down from storage in Somerville to Sotheby’s in anticipation of the auction but for various reasons not included therein. […]

Polaroid Collection: They’re Closed

At 5 p.m. CST this afternoon, bidding closed on three separate chunks of the now-dismembered Polaroid Collection. For all intents and purposes, the dispersal of this unique, irreplaceable collection will have run its course by the end of this month.

The first phase of the ill-fated Collection’s distribution in parts took place last June, through […]

Polaroid Collection: Urgent Institutional Alert 1

John R. Stoebner, the court-appointed Chapter 7 Trustee in the PBE Corporation bankruptcy proceeding that involves the Polaroid Collection, anounced on January 3, 2010 that he has found buyers for most of the collection. This opens the way for a poential auction for the several remaining components of the Polaroid Collection, with competitive bids due no later that 5 p.m. CST on January 20, 2011 — 10 days hence. That leaves a very brief window of opportunity for any institution or other potential purchaser to submit an offer. […]