Word: auctioner
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This genteel exercise in white slavery occurred in the home of Italian Ambassador to the U.N. Egidio Ortona at an auction to raise money for Gian Carlo Menotti's Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto. Sold off with Burton and several minor works by Chagall and Tiepolo were Composer Menotti himself (for $501. to Novelist Pati Hill) and Conductor Thom as Schippers, who brought a mere $325 from Jean Feldman, ex-wife of Agent Charles Feldman. Schippers later registered a complaint with Maxwell: "Traitor, $350 for only an actor!" This week the proud owners were scheduled to feed their...
...barn in Buenos Aires' Rural Association fairground last week flocked the elite of Argentina: society women in Paris gowns, high-booted cattle ranchers, pin-striped nouveaux riches. On a raised runway in the middle of the barn, a professional auctioneer commanded all attention. At the rate of 72 a day-one every seven minutes during three sessions daily-the auctioneer sold new 1961 autos from Europe and Detroit. In the frantic bidding, a Fiat went for $7,000, a Ford station wagon for $15,000, a Buick for $23,000, a Cadillac for an incredible $50,000. When...
...government-sponsored auction was held to pay for this year's 150th anniversary celebration of Argentina's independence from Spain, but the bidders were not driven by overpowering patriotism. New imported cars, particularly those big shiny Detroit wagons, are almost impossible to get in austerity-conscious Argentina; import duty on foreign cars is 300%, and, except to diplomats, no import permits at all are issued for cars weighing more than 3,300 lbs. Argentines were simply seizing a rare opportunity to buy-no matter how high the bidding went...
...until last month, in the name of its independence anniversary binge, did Argentina get around to holding its second international auto show. In three weeks, the display drew 1,000,000 Argentines, who paid 50 pesos a head to see what they had been missing. The auction in the fourth and final week gave those with the price exactly what they wanted: the nouveaux riches got their flashy new status symbols, businessmen bought that company car and a tax write-off at the same time, and the government paid for its independence celebration. The opposition got something, too: an eight...
...time he was 22. In 1946 he cut loose from the family circle to buy a war-surplus aluminum-extrusion plant in Torrance, Calif. He soon persuaded the rest of the family to go along, and the Harvey Machine Co.'s equipment was sold at public auction to finance refurbishing of the Torrance plant...