Post by Richard Weddle on Jun 26, 2011 6:09:12 GMT -5
This footage from Denver Old West Auctions offers a better angle than the live internet stream but it still doesn't show the bidders in the heat of the moment:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4fWe9NEmBk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
denver and the west
Only surviving photo of Billy the Kid auctioned Saturday
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
Posted: 06/26/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 06/26/2011 01:00:39 AM MDT
A retired Wichita industrialist who collects everything from Wild West memorabilia to Picassos won the only surviving, authenticated portrait of Billy the Kid with a bid of $2 million at a Denver auction.
The tintype was auctioned Saturday night at Brian Lebel's 22nd Annual Old West Show & Auction. Organizers had estimated it would fetch between $300,000 and $400,000.
"I love the Old West," said William Koch , 71, who now lives in Palm Beach, Fla. "I plan on enjoying it and discreetly sharing it. I think I'll display it in a few small museums."
After winning the bid, Koch shook the hand of Steve Upham, whose family owned the photograph, and said, "I'm glad you all benefitted from it."
Koch founded Oxbow Carbon, with sales of $4 billion annually. His twin brother is David Koch, who, along with an older brother, Charles, run the energy giant Koch Industries. David and Charles are prominent conservative activists and are reportedly in the Vail area this weekend, hosting their semiannual conservative action retreat.
William and a fourth brother, Frederick, have sold their interests in the company.
Saturday night, William Koch left little doubt who would win the tintype as the bidding climbed from about $300,000 to $2 million in about two minutes.
Koch must also pay a buyer's premium to the auctioneer of about 10 percent, said Bob McCubbin, a collector of rare photographs of outlaws, Indians and lawmen, including Jesse James and Pat Garrett. He had predicted the tintype would fetch more than $1 million.
"All you need is two serious bidders," McCubbin said. "A billionaire just walked by."
Koch owns a large collection of western artifacts including hand guns once owned by James and Frank James and a rifle once belonging to George Armstrong Custer . Koch, an avid sailor, won the America's Cup in 1992 with the yacht America, according to news reports.
Not all of Koch's collections have left him as happy. He has filed about eight lawsuits against people who sold him 1,000 forged wine bottles including four supposedly once owned by Thomas Jefferson . It's one of the reasons he was pleased that the Billy the Kid photograph has the blessing of Christie's auction house.
McCubbin said the tintype is not a very flattering photograph of the Kid, but that is part of its fascination.
"It shows the Kid as he might have looked if we ran into him out on the trail between Lincoln and Fort Sumner, wearing clothes he wore on the range, with a screwball hat that he liked, well-worn boots, his 1873 Winchester Carbine at hand, and his Colt single-action in his holster on his right hip," he said.
"It's been called the Holy Grail," said Brian Lebel, who runs the Old West Auction. "It's probably the most important historical photograph of one of the most infamous people in the world."
For years, collectors believed the original photograph, taken by a traveling photographer in 1879 or 1880 at Fort Sumner, N.M., no longer existed. Kid posed in front of a saloon.
There were four originals made simultaneously using a multi-lens camera. One burned in a fire. It is unknown where two others ended up.
The Kid gave the one up for auction Saturday night to one of his rustler buddies, Dan Dedrick. Dan gave it to his nephew Frank Upham in the early 1930s, McCubbin said.
The first time a copy of the photograph appeared publicly was on Jan. 8, 1881, in the Boston Illustrated Police News, according to McCubbin.
Pat Garrett used the image twice in his book, "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid," McCubbin said. Sheriff Garrett fatally shot the Kid on July 14, 1881. The provenance is undisputed, he said.
Dedrick's descendents announced its existence in 1986 when they donated it to the Lincoln County Heritage Trust in New Mexico. When the trust ended, the photograph went back to the Dedrick family.
Tintypes were an early form of photography that used metal plates. They are reverse images, and the Billy the Kid tintype led to the mistaken belief that Billy the Kid was a lefty. The myth inspired the 1958 movie "The Left Handed Gun ," starring Paul Newman as Billy.
www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18355319
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4fWe9NEmBk&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
denver and the west
Only surviving photo of Billy the Kid auctioned Saturday
By Kirk Mitchell
The Denver Post
Posted: 06/26/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 06/26/2011 01:00:39 AM MDT
A retired Wichita industrialist who collects everything from Wild West memorabilia to Picassos won the only surviving, authenticated portrait of Billy the Kid with a bid of $2 million at a Denver auction.
The tintype was auctioned Saturday night at Brian Lebel's 22nd Annual Old West Show & Auction. Organizers had estimated it would fetch between $300,000 and $400,000.
"I love the Old West," said William Koch , 71, who now lives in Palm Beach, Fla. "I plan on enjoying it and discreetly sharing it. I think I'll display it in a few small museums."
After winning the bid, Koch shook the hand of Steve Upham, whose family owned the photograph, and said, "I'm glad you all benefitted from it."
Koch founded Oxbow Carbon, with sales of $4 billion annually. His twin brother is David Koch, who, along with an older brother, Charles, run the energy giant Koch Industries. David and Charles are prominent conservative activists and are reportedly in the Vail area this weekend, hosting their semiannual conservative action retreat.
William and a fourth brother, Frederick, have sold their interests in the company.
Saturday night, William Koch left little doubt who would win the tintype as the bidding climbed from about $300,000 to $2 million in about two minutes.
Koch must also pay a buyer's premium to the auctioneer of about 10 percent, said Bob McCubbin, a collector of rare photographs of outlaws, Indians and lawmen, including Jesse James and Pat Garrett. He had predicted the tintype would fetch more than $1 million.
"All you need is two serious bidders," McCubbin said. "A billionaire just walked by."
Koch owns a large collection of western artifacts including hand guns once owned by James and Frank James and a rifle once belonging to George Armstrong Custer . Koch, an avid sailor, won the America's Cup in 1992 with the yacht America, according to news reports.
Not all of Koch's collections have left him as happy. He has filed about eight lawsuits against people who sold him 1,000 forged wine bottles including four supposedly once owned by Thomas Jefferson . It's one of the reasons he was pleased that the Billy the Kid photograph has the blessing of Christie's auction house.
McCubbin said the tintype is not a very flattering photograph of the Kid, but that is part of its fascination.
"It shows the Kid as he might have looked if we ran into him out on the trail between Lincoln and Fort Sumner, wearing clothes he wore on the range, with a screwball hat that he liked, well-worn boots, his 1873 Winchester Carbine at hand, and his Colt single-action in his holster on his right hip," he said.
"It's been called the Holy Grail," said Brian Lebel, who runs the Old West Auction. "It's probably the most important historical photograph of one of the most infamous people in the world."
For years, collectors believed the original photograph, taken by a traveling photographer in 1879 or 1880 at Fort Sumner, N.M., no longer existed. Kid posed in front of a saloon.
There were four originals made simultaneously using a multi-lens camera. One burned in a fire. It is unknown where two others ended up.
The Kid gave the one up for auction Saturday night to one of his rustler buddies, Dan Dedrick. Dan gave it to his nephew Frank Upham in the early 1930s, McCubbin said.
The first time a copy of the photograph appeared publicly was on Jan. 8, 1881, in the Boston Illustrated Police News, according to McCubbin.
Pat Garrett used the image twice in his book, "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid," McCubbin said. Sheriff Garrett fatally shot the Kid on July 14, 1881. The provenance is undisputed, he said.
Dedrick's descendents announced its existence in 1986 when they donated it to the Lincoln County Heritage Trust in New Mexico. When the trust ended, the photograph went back to the Dedrick family.
Tintypes were an early form of photography that used metal plates. They are reverse images, and the Billy the Kid tintype led to the mistaken belief that Billy the Kid was a lefty. The myth inspired the 1958 movie "The Left Handed Gun ," starring Paul Newman as Billy.
www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18355319