P.M. BRIEFING : Hunt Brother Antiquities Sold
NEW YORK — A 2,500-year-old Greek vase and two ancient silver coins brought record prices at a court-ordered auction of antiquities owned by the one-time billionaire Hunt brothers.
The 18-inch-tall vase from about 510 BC sold for $1.76 million Tuesday at Sotheby’s. The old record for an ancient vase sold at auction was $493,000.
Nelson Bunker Hunt and brother William Herbert Hunt, heirs to an oil fortune, lost more than $1.5 billion in an alleged attempt to corner the silver market a decade ago and sought bankruptcy reorganization.
The Dallas businessmen were ordered to sell off their possessions to pay their creditors, the biggest of which is the Internal Revenue Service.
R. Carter Pate, the trustee in charge of liquidating Nelson Bunker Hunt’s estate, expected all the sales, which will be held through 1991, to raise between $20 million and $25 million.
But Tuesday’s sale of 164 vases, coins and bronze figures generated $20 million alone, Sotheby’s said.
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