Bargain-Hunters Expected To Duke It Out At Auction Of Cunningham's Treasures.
FOR THE FULL AND UP TO DATE LIST OF USA AUCTIONS VISIT THE FREE NEWSLETTER AT: http://www.usa-government-auctions.com/template.html
Bargain-Hunters Expected To Duke It Out At Auction Of Cunningham's Treasures.
We now know that former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham had a taste for antiques. And the public is about to get a taste of his taste.
But interested buyers had better bring a fat wallet.
More than four dozen items forfeited to the feds by the disgraced Republican lawmaker ---- now imprisoned for taking $2.4 million in bribes ---- will hit the auction block Thursday in the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Dominguez. And anyone interested can participate not only in the auction, but in two days of preview showings of the merchandise on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The booty is that which investigators said was part of Cunningham's ill-gotten gains: Some items were directly purchased for him by businessmen seeking fat government contracts; others were bought with bribe money. All will be sold Thursday alongside other items forfeited or seized in criminal cases.
Cunningham's candelabra and cherrywood sleigh bed will share auction block space with items taken from drug dealers and tax evaders. All of the items at Thursday's auction under the heading of "antiques" were once in Cunningham's home.
Britney Sheehan, spokeswoman for EG&G Technical Services, the company running the auction, isn't spilling secrets about how high the opening bids will be for the congressman's cache. But she did say that Cunningham's antiques were moved up from San Diego to the auction house, and that the market there may sustain higher bids.
But how much will his property net? Hard to estimate.
Encinitas-based personal property appraiser Paul McConnell agreed to take on the very tough task of reviewing photos and descriptions of Cunningham's antiques to come up with a ballpark figure of their retail value. McConnell specializes in appraisals of European and American furniture, and for a few years taught a six-week course on the history of furniture.
Although he was unable to view the furniture directly, McConnell said most of the furniture doesn't appear to be true period pieces. Instead, he said, they seem to have been made in the 1800s, after the Industrial Revolution, as reproductions of French styles ranging from Renaissance to baroque to rococo to neoclassic.
"They are nice decorative pieces, but not museum quality," McConnell said. "Many people would be very proud to have these. They are not the finest, nor the worst."
McConnell said some of Cunningham's larger pieces, such as a walnut armoire with mirrors and a carved crown, could retail in the range of $5,000 to $6,000. Some of his several nightstands could sell in a store for about $600 to $700 each, he estimated.
But would everyday people be willing to pony up such prices?
Stopped outside a local warehouse store and shown photos of the auction items, San Marcos resident Margie Centner, 70, remarked that the pieces seemed "pretty."
"I wish I could go (to the auction)," she said. "We've got good taste, we just don't have any money."
Told who had previously owned the items, Centner and her husband, Jim, both winced.
"I feel so sorry for that man," said Jim Centner, 78. "He's a veteran and I'm a veteran."
It was a common reaction among other people who also viewed the photos without knowing they were once in Cunningham's home.
"How sad that greed makes the ethics bend," said Oceanside resident Oleta Woolsey as she thumbed through the stack of photos a second time after learning the items were Cunningham's collection.
Their response brings up a question with an answer unknowable until the auction: Could the notoriety of Cunningham's fall from grace bring a higher dollar value? Folks on the street generally think it will.
"I'm sure there will be people there who would not normally go," Woolsey said.
Others think the auction could go either way.
"I think it will depend on people's sense of humor and their sense of value," said Harold Davis as he snacked with his daughter outside a Vista store. Davis noted that some folks might shy away from the items simply because they were once Cunningham's. But others, he said, will snap them up "as a novelty."
Davis was also struck by the sheer amount of Cunningham furniture up for bid.
"All this was in his home?" Davis said, looking at the photos. "Coming from this to a jail cell."
His daughter, Deborah Davis, scanned the photos and guessed that each item might yield bids into the thousands, some larger armoires going for as much as $11,000 each.
EG&G, the government contractor handling the auction, runs some 250 similar auctions across the country each year, spokeswoman Sheehan said. Most of the items are run-of-the-mill property associated with a criminal case, either forfeited to or seized by the government.
Many people are already familiar with the idea that the government auctions off confiscated cars and the like.
But in the 16 years that EG&G has contracted with the Department of the Treasury, quite a few treasures ---- and oddities ---- have found their way to the government auction block.
In 1994, EG&G, at the request of the federal government, sold off the Royal Kenfield Golf Course in Nevada ---- a property seized after an investigation uncovered an international money-laundering scheme, Sheehan said.
And two weeks before Christmas in 2002, the company auctioned off furnishings from the "Mustang Ranch," the famed Nevada brothel.
Closer to home, EG&G also ran the auction for items forfeited by former PinnFund USA Inc. Chief Financial Officer John Garitta, after the investigation into the now-defunct Carlsbad company turned up a Ponzi scheme that was one of California's most egregious income tax and investment fraud cases.
The PinnFund items auctioned off included "really expensive bottles of wine and jewelry," Sheehan said.
Cunningham's stuff includes roughly 35 "lots," which in auction terms can be one item ---- a French commode, for example ---- or a group of items sold together, like a pair of matching nightstands.
The money from the sale of Cunningham's cache goes back into the Treasury Assets Forfeiture Fund, and will be split among the agencies which investigated Cunningham.
The public auction of Randy "Duke" Cunningham's furniture will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at EG&G Technical Services, 2332 E. Pacifica Place, Rancho Dominguez. Preview days are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Call (703) 273-7373 or visit www.treas.gov/auctions/customs.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
Public Auction To BE HELD
9 a.m. Thursday
EG&G Technical Services, 2332 E. Pacifica Place, Rancho Dominguez
Preview: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday
Phone: (703) 273-7373
Web: www.treas.gov/auctions/customs
FOR THE FULL AND UP TO DATE LIST OF USA AUCTIONS VISIT THE FREE NEWSLETTER AT: http://www.usa-government-auctions.com/template.html
Bargain-Hunters Expected To Duke It Out At Auction Of Cunningham's Treasures.
We now know that former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham had a taste for antiques. And the public is about to get a taste of his taste.
But interested buyers had better bring a fat wallet.
More than four dozen items forfeited to the feds by the disgraced Republican lawmaker ---- now imprisoned for taking $2.4 million in bribes ---- will hit the auction block Thursday in the Los Angeles suburb of Rancho Dominguez. And anyone interested can participate not only in the auction, but in two days of preview showings of the merchandise on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The booty is that which investigators said was part of Cunningham's ill-gotten gains: Some items were directly purchased for him by businessmen seeking fat government contracts; others were bought with bribe money. All will be sold Thursday alongside other items forfeited or seized in criminal cases.
Cunningham's candelabra and cherrywood sleigh bed will share auction block space with items taken from drug dealers and tax evaders. All of the items at Thursday's auction under the heading of "antiques" were once in Cunningham's home.
Britney Sheehan, spokeswoman for EG&G Technical Services, the company running the auction, isn't spilling secrets about how high the opening bids will be for the congressman's cache. But she did say that Cunningham's antiques were moved up from San Diego to the auction house, and that the market there may sustain higher bids.
But how much will his property net? Hard to estimate.
Encinitas-based personal property appraiser Paul McConnell agreed to take on the very tough task of reviewing photos and descriptions of Cunningham's antiques to come up with a ballpark figure of their retail value. McConnell specializes in appraisals of European and American furniture, and for a few years taught a six-week course on the history of furniture.
Although he was unable to view the furniture directly, McConnell said most of the furniture doesn't appear to be true period pieces. Instead, he said, they seem to have been made in the 1800s, after the Industrial Revolution, as reproductions of French styles ranging from Renaissance to baroque to rococo to neoclassic.
"They are nice decorative pieces, but not museum quality," McConnell said. "Many people would be very proud to have these. They are not the finest, nor the worst."
McConnell said some of Cunningham's larger pieces, such as a walnut armoire with mirrors and a carved crown, could retail in the range of $5,000 to $6,000. Some of his several nightstands could sell in a store for about $600 to $700 each, he estimated.
But would everyday people be willing to pony up such prices?
Stopped outside a local warehouse store and shown photos of the auction items, San Marcos resident Margie Centner, 70, remarked that the pieces seemed "pretty."
"I wish I could go (to the auction)," she said. "We've got good taste, we just don't have any money."
Told who had previously owned the items, Centner and her husband, Jim, both winced.
"I feel so sorry for that man," said Jim Centner, 78. "He's a veteran and I'm a veteran."
It was a common reaction among other people who also viewed the photos without knowing they were once in Cunningham's home.
"How sad that greed makes the ethics bend," said Oceanside resident Oleta Woolsey as she thumbed through the stack of photos a second time after learning the items were Cunningham's collection.
Their response brings up a question with an answer unknowable until the auction: Could the notoriety of Cunningham's fall from grace bring a higher dollar value? Folks on the street generally think it will.
"I'm sure there will be people there who would not normally go," Woolsey said.
Others think the auction could go either way.
"I think it will depend on people's sense of humor and their sense of value," said Harold Davis as he snacked with his daughter outside a Vista store. Davis noted that some folks might shy away from the items simply because they were once Cunningham's. But others, he said, will snap them up "as a novelty."
Davis was also struck by the sheer amount of Cunningham furniture up for bid.
"All this was in his home?" Davis said, looking at the photos. "Coming from this to a jail cell."
His daughter, Deborah Davis, scanned the photos and guessed that each item might yield bids into the thousands, some larger armoires going for as much as $11,000 each.
EG&G, the government contractor handling the auction, runs some 250 similar auctions across the country each year, spokeswoman Sheehan said. Most of the items are run-of-the-mill property associated with a criminal case, either forfeited to or seized by the government.
Many people are already familiar with the idea that the government auctions off confiscated cars and the like.
But in the 16 years that EG&G has contracted with the Department of the Treasury, quite a few treasures ---- and oddities ---- have found their way to the government auction block.
In 1994, EG&G, at the request of the federal government, sold off the Royal Kenfield Golf Course in Nevada ---- a property seized after an investigation uncovered an international money-laundering scheme, Sheehan said.
And two weeks before Christmas in 2002, the company auctioned off furnishings from the "Mustang Ranch," the famed Nevada brothel.
Closer to home, EG&G also ran the auction for items forfeited by former PinnFund USA Inc. Chief Financial Officer John Garitta, after the investigation into the now-defunct Carlsbad company turned up a Ponzi scheme that was one of California's most egregious income tax and investment fraud cases.
The PinnFund items auctioned off included "really expensive bottles of wine and jewelry," Sheehan said.
Cunningham's stuff includes roughly 35 "lots," which in auction terms can be one item ---- a French commode, for example ---- or a group of items sold together, like a pair of matching nightstands.
The money from the sale of Cunningham's cache goes back into the Treasury Assets Forfeiture Fund, and will be split among the agencies which investigated Cunningham.
The public auction of Randy "Duke" Cunningham's furniture will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday at EG&G Technical Services, 2332 E. Pacifica Place, Rancho Dominguez. Preview days are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday. Call (703) 273-7373 or visit www.treas.gov/auctions/customs.
Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.
Public Auction To BE HELD
9 a.m. Thursday
EG&G Technical Services, 2332 E. Pacifica Place, Rancho Dominguez
Preview: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday
Phone: (703) 273-7373
Web: www.treas.gov/auctions/customs
FOR THE FULL AND UP TO DATE LIST OF USA AUCTIONS VISIT THE FREE NEWSLETTER AT: http://www.usa-government-auctions.com/template.html
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