A collection of belongings from Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall’s Manhattan apartment sold for $3.6m (£2.45m) after a two-day auction at Bonhams in New York.
Bonhams said more than 1,500 bidders from 34 countries vied for the collection belonging to the Hollywood star, who died in August at age 89.
“We have been humbled by the worldwide outpouring of enthusiasm for this sale,” said Jon King, director and vice-president at Bonhams, as well as a friend of the actress. “Bacall’s legacy will live on in the homes of her countless admirers.”
Known for her smoky voice and sultry looks, Bacall was an icon of 1940s film noir, although her career went on to include musicals, melodramas and art-house films. She met actor Humphrey Bogart when she was 19, on the set of her first film To Have and Have Not. They married in 1945 and had a son and a daughter. Bogart died in 1957.
Almost every item from the Bacall’s 4,000-square-foot apartment in Manhattan’s Dakota Building on 72nd street was on display at the New York auction house, including a cheese slicer and Bogart’s games table.
“Literally every tabletop had things on it,” King said during the auction, describing Bacall’s apartment and her eclectic taste.
She was a noted connoisseur of art, writing in her memoir: “I filled my house with wonderful furniture and art to satisfy my aesthetic sense and as a way of building a solid life, subconsciously thinking that all would bring me stability, permanence.”
Highlights from the auction included an 1836 hand-coloured engraving by John James Audubon, which sold for $173,000 (£95,000), nearly three times its high estimate, and two paintings by Albert York which fetched $161,000 (£88,000), an auction record for the artist, Bonhams said.
Bogart’s belongings achieved far more than their high estimates, including his steamer trunk, which sold for $47,500 (£26,000).
Bonhams said the entire Bacall collection, including two bronze sculptures by British artist Henry Moore that sold in November, fetched $5m (£3.4m).
