PwC's Lehman Brothers auction tops £600,000

The sale of items from Lehmans Brothers European arm has topped £600,000 and
is set to rise even further as the auction continues.

The sell-off, currently taking place at Christie’s, included a commemorative
plaque for the opening of Lehman’s former Canary Wharf HQ by Gordon Brown which
went for £23,000.

One bidder snapped up the Lehman Brothers reception sign for £34,000.

By the end of the first 30 minutes, the auction had made £100,000.

Christie’s was accepting bids from as far away as Hong Kong and the Bahamas
but also as local as Croydon, South London.

At around 300, the auction has attracted the largest number of registered
online bidders since the sale of Star Trek memorabillia.

A set of Churchill books raised 10 times the estimated price while a set of
books on the fall of the Roman Empire went for 9 times the reserve price.

Commenting on the auction, Barry Gilbertson, partner at PwC responsible for
releasing value from the assets said:

“The prices being achieved in today’s auction demonstrate just how much
interest there is in anything related to the collapse of Lehman Brothers two
years ago. The chance to own a piece of history does not come up very often.

“The administrators were confident that, by holding their nerve for 2 years
and waiting for the art markets to recover, they would be able to realise the
optimum return for the creditors.”

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