Bankrupt Enron Corp. raised nearly $1-million to pay creditors during an art auction that sold prized possessions such as Claes Oldenburg’s pop sculpture Soft Light Switches, which fetched $360 000.
A US bankruptcy judge earlier this week authorised Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg, an international art auction house, to conduct the sale.
The five-lot collection had been expected to bring between $720 000 and $1,03-million, Enron representative Karen Denne said. In Thursday’s auction, it raised $952 000 for Enron, including $135 000 for Jack Pierson’s sculpture Stardust and $265 000 for Donald Judd’s untitled minimalist sculpture of two boxes.
”We’re very pleased,” Denne said. ”The goal in this process is to maximise the value of these assets for our creditors, and this auction enabled us to do that.”
Enron creditors have filed 23 000 claims worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg was to auction off more Enron artwork on Friday. That sale was expected to raise $190 000 to $270 000.
The collection was purchased by the company’s in-house art committee, headed by Lea Fastow, the wife of former chief financial officer Andrew Fastow.
The committee had a budget of $20-million and made purchases of about $4-million from late 2000 until it disbanded in 2001, when the energy company collapsed.
The buyers’ identities were not revealed. – Sapa-AP