JohnBT
Member
"One of the items -- a real standout -- is a giant picnic hamper on wheels. The hamper, whose estimated worth is between $20,000 and $30,000, was hauled into the woods around Morven by horse or tractor for elaborate hunts on the estate's more than 7,000 acres.
Inside the big hamper were stored mahogany tables and chairs as well as small wicker hampers containing enough china, silver and glassware for 16 hunters.
Elton Oliver, managing director of Kluge's Virginia farms, including Morven, said the "hunting trailer" was used mostly in the late 1980s by Patricia, Kluge's wife at the time and the hunter in the family."
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Here's the entire article from today's Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Christie's to auction Kluge estate
BY CARLOS SANTOS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Saturday, December 3, 2005
CHARLOTTESVILLE Billionaire media mogul John Kluge has finally cut his long-standing ties to Albemarle County, emptying his Morven home and placing most of the mansion's contents up for sale.
And what a sale it is. Christie's, the New York auction house, will sell off Kluge's American and English furniture, decorative arts and expensive bric-a-brac on Dec. 16 in New York.
The 553 items, all taken from Morven Farm, are worth an estimated $5.8 million to $8.7 million. "There's good 18th- and 19th-century American furniture" in the auction, said Melissa Gagen, one of Christie's furniture experts. "There are some very nice pieces and some practical ones. Part of Morven was furnished with a collector's sensibility, part of it's just furnishings. It's a nice mix."
And it's not all furniture.
One of the items -- a real standout -- is a giant picnic hamper on wheels. The hamper, whose estimated worth is between $20,000 and $30,000, was hauled into the woods around Morven by horse or tractor for elaborate hunts on the estate's more than 7,000 acres.
Inside the big hamper were stored mahogany tables and chairs as well as small wicker hampers containing enough china, silver and glassware for 16 hunters.
Elton Oliver, managing director of Kluge's Virginia farms, including Morven, said the "hunting trailer" was used mostly in the late 1980s by Patricia, Kluge's wife at the time and the hunter in the family.
Other unusual items for sale are a carved and painted cigar store Indian princess, attributed to woodcarver Samuel Robb and worth as much as $25,000, and a map of the "most inhabited part of Virginia," drawn in 1775 by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, the father of President Thomas Jefferson. The map is valued between $25,000 and $40,000.
Extraordinary furniture pieces include a George II walnut side table, whose top value is estimated at $100,000; a Grecian sofa, which has scrolled arms with dolphin supports and "heavily rendered hairy paw feet" worth as much as $50,000; and a four-pedestal dining table that seats 18.
Gagen said any item worth less than $20,000 will be sold without reserve.
"He wants it to sell," she said.
Kluge, 91, moved to Albemarle County with his wife in the late 1980s and lived at Albemarle House, a mansion just outside Charlottesville. They were divorced in 1990. Patricia Kluge, who has since remarried, operates a winery on her 1,800-acre Albemarle County estate.
Oliver, who has overseen Kluge's farms for almost a decade, said Kluge made the decision to leave Morven last fall. "He took some items with him from Morven that were of some significance to him," said Oliver, and decided to sell the rest. "At one time we had a large operation of 12 to 15 farms here," Oliver said. "We had cattle, horses . . . We're discontinuing our operations, getting ready for the U.Va. foundation to come in."
The University of Virginia Foundation was given the property, worth an estimated $45 million, by Kluge in 2001, though Kluge kept the right to stay at Morven through his lifetime. The school plans to use the property for educational programs such as environmental and landscape studies.
Kluge, who made his fortune by buying network television stations and then in telecommunication ventures, bought Morven in 1988 as a country retreat. He resides mostly in Palm Beach, Fla., and according to Forbes, is worth $11 billion.
Contact Carlos Santos at (434) 295-9542 or [email protected]