Liz Taylor’s Jewels, Steve Jobs’ Apple Contract Auctioned

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Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels fetched a record $115 million at a recent auction, while the contract signed by cofounders Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne that established Apple as a company has sold for $1.35million.
The contract sold for over ten times the pre-sale estimate at Sotheby’s. Eduardo Cisneros, chief executive officer of Cisneros Corporation bought the contract, along with a document that removed Wayne from the company after just 11 days. Both had only been expected to fetch up to $150,000 at Sotheby’s auction of books and manuscripts in New York.
At Christie’s in New York, the sale of Taylor’s jewels shattered most estimates and set new records. The 33.19-carat Taj Mahal Diamond given to the late actress by former husband Richard Burton fetched over $8.8 million at the auction Tuesday.
At the same auction, a 50.6-carat pearl necklace also given to Taylor by Burton sold for a record $11.8 million. A diamond bracelet that Michael Jackson gave Taylor raised over $194,000.
Christie’s will put additional Taylor items on the block in the coming days. Taylor died in March at age 79.
Taylor’s son Chris Wilding praised the auction in statement issued through his publicist. ”We are extremely gratified by the spectacular results of the jewelry sale last night at Christie’s,” he said. “My mother was an admirer and collector of extraordinary things. The outcome of the sale is a testament to her connoisseurship as well as to the remarkable talents of the team at Christie’s. We are deeply moved by the incredible response to her collection. She would be happy to know that her wish for her jewelry to be owned and enjoyed by others was fulfilled.”
Still to come: a Los Angeles auction house is putting up Orson Welles’ Oscar for co-writing “Citizen Kane,” considered by many to be the greatest film ever produced in Hollywood. The 1942 Academy Award is expected to fetch between $600,000 and $1 million, according to the New York Daily News.
The auction is scheduled for Dec. 20. (abc news)