Private results belonging to the late Canadian musician and poet Leonard Cohen, who died in November 2016, went up on the market on Friday in what the public sale home marketed because the “largest group of privately held collections” of his works.
A private composition pocket book containing 76 pages of poems and lyrics was the very best priced merchandise, promoting for $120,650 US ($171,400 Cdn). Different gadgets starting from symbolic (a skeleton key to Cohen’s residence in Greece), to non-public (a locket containing his hair), to unusual (a faxed erotic drawing) offered for decrease costs, though nonetheless above asking.
The items had been amongst greater than 150 gadgets up on the market by Julien’s Auctions in Los Angeles and had been collected from a number of sources. Some had been from Cohen’s long-time good friend Aviva Layton, who met Cohen by way of her former accomplice, the late Canadian poet Irving Layton.
Others got here from editor Cork Smith and longtime good friend and editor Nancy Bacal, in addition to some from musician and former accomplice Anjani Thomas.
The highest-priced merchandise was from Thomas’s assortment, and was additionally the public sale’s highest valued: Cohen’s avocado-green composition ebook was anticipated to promote for between $120,000-150,000 US ($170,000-213,000 Cdn).
The pocket book, dated Jan 21, 2007, comprises drafts for a number of Cohen works. There have been two pages of drafts for the music Treaty from the 2016 album You Need it Darker, in addition to seven pages of drafts for Thanks for the Dance‘s monitor It is Torn. It additionally contained unpublished poems, notes and bets with Thomas — bets, Thomas wrote, that had been ridiculously excessive, however by no means collected on.
“We might wager on issues like whether or not or not Phil Spector would go to jail, and I mentioned he would,” Thomas was quoted as saying on the auctioneer’s web site.
“That is the one pocket book of Leonard’s in non-public arms exterior of the Cohen Household Belief Archives, and I think about these won’t ever be out there for buy.”
Together with corrections to his ebook The Favorite Sport, unpublished poems and his “magic” fisherman’s cap that supposedly helped him write, had been ephemera much less academically inclined. A gilded locket containing a lock of Cohen’s hair (initially a birthday present to Thomas) offered for $5,080 US ($7,200 Cdn) — roughly 10 occasions above its estimated sale value.
A key to Cohen’s home in Hydra — the place Cohen moved within the Sixties and bought his begin as a self-sustaining author and musician — offered for $19,500 US ($27,700 Cdn), roughly 4 occasions above asking. Two mezuzahs (a standard Jewish merchandise meant to be positioned on door posts) offered for $7,800 ($11,000 Cdn) — greater than 10 occasions above estimates.
And a “faxed express digital paintings” from Cohen fetched $1,170 US ($1,650 Cdn). The cartoonish, erotic drawing was reportedly despatched personally to Layton. It’s unsigned, solely bearing the phrases “Finger F–k!”. It had an estimated value of $100-150 US ($140-215 Cdn).
Authorized battles
Cohen famously suffered from monetary pressure after discovering his former supervisor, Kelley Lynch, embezzled giant quantities of his financial savings in 2005. He launched into a whirlwind comeback tour to cushion the blow, resulting in a revitalized profession and fame. Lynch was later convicted and jailed for harassment.
The public sale comes amid protracted authorized jousting between Cohen’s kids and one other former supervisor, Robert Kory. Kids Lorca Cohen and Adam Cohen have alleged their father’s legislation agency coated up “malfeasance” by Kory, the Los Angeles Times reported. Friday’s public sale was capable of go forward as it’s from non-public collections as a substitute of from the Leonard Cohen Household Belief, which controls nearly all of Cohen’s memorabilia.
As reported by the Globe and Mail, that authorized dispute has put a serious Cohen archival mission in jeopardy. As deliberate, it could see unreleased recordings and gadgets from the belief showcased throughout the Artwork Gallery of Ontario, College of Toronto, College of British Columbia, McGill College and Nationwide Music Centre in Calgary. The continuing authorized motion have prevented it from being realized, biographer and mission adviser Ira Nadel informed the Globe,
Julien’s Auctions focuses on movie star auctions. It beforehand held gross sales containing gadgets from Bob Dylan, Olivia Newton-John, Princess Diana and extra.
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