OJ SIMPSON AUCTION: PRICES SLASHED
I wrote this piece in February 1999 for the Financial Times. I happened to be in Los Angeles attending a film event and a show of John Singer Sargent’s watercolours at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art when the auction took place. It’s worth noting, as my obituary for the Guardian which I updated today will say, the 33 year sentence he received in the robbery of other memorabilia from dealers at a Las Vegas show, was one year for each million dollars the Brown and Goodman families never received from the civil judgement. I did find it ironic that he claimed he was recovering things stolen from him by the dealers; evidently much of his memorabilia never fell into the hands of the auctioneers many years before. I included the details about the online process because that was what the FT were interested in, and didn’t get a chance to approach Lou Brown who left quickly. Being the FT, the printed copy eliminated a few lines which I (and my editor, though not the sub-editors) found amusing, changed “spelled” to “spelt” and “tchatkes” to “knick-knacks”. They also used a different headline. So it goes.
Los Angeles, 17 Febuary 1999
The OJ Simpson Circus was back in action in Hollywood last week, when property from former football star’s residence was auctioned off on behalf of a Court Receiver, one step in obtaining the $33.5 million judgement levied against…
