Fans of the late Joan Rivers will soon be able to own some of her most prized possessions as items from her Manhattan penthouse are set to go up for auction this summer. It's been about a year and a half since the entertainer tragically passed away, but since the fashion icon still has several luxury items lying around, her daughter Melissa Rivers partnered up with a prestige auction company to sell them for a good cause.
The comedian's lavish triplex apartment sold last July for $28 million, and now her personal items from within the home will be auctioned off for $500 to $200,000. Melissa made the announcement today that Christie's will be putting more than 200 items online starting June 16, and then the rest will be sold during a live auction in New York June 22. A portion of the proceeds will go to the charities God's Love We Deliver and Guide Dogs for the Blind.
"[The auction] will provide a through-the-keyhole experience for fans across the globe to see and buy items from my mother's amazing Manhattan penthouse," Melissa said. "My mother's legacy as a much loved comedienne and philanthropist will be commemorated in this collaboration with Christie's, and her generosity to charitable causes is something I will continue to honor."
The more expensive items that will be featured in the auction include the 1915 Edouard Vuillard painting "Dans L'Atelier," which has an estimated value of $120,000 to $180,000, as well as some Cartier and Harry Winston jewelry from her famous collection. There's even her Yorkshire Terrier Spike's engraved Tiffany water bowl that is valued between $500 and $800.
Joan's 5,000-square-foot penthouse had three floors and four bedrooms. It was big enough for Melissa to even have her own apartment within the triplex. When it first went up for sale, the Corcoran real estate group said it was "one of New York's most legendary apartments."
She even once described her Upper East Side luxury home, which was built in 1903, as "where Marie Antoinette would have lived if she had the money." Joan purchased the home in 1987 following the death of her husband.
"By the time I moved in, I had a whole new life," she said. "This apartment totally saved me. It's funny how things turn around."
