Move Over King of Collectibles

Bend the knee to Princess Diana's memorabilia market royalty

July 10, 2024

Welcome to Alts & Ends, your lively guide to collectible market happenings. In this edition, we bow before Princess Diana’s memorabilia market royalty and explore a wine auction result worth toasting.

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Photo: Christie’s Auction Catalog, Dresses from the Collection of Diana, Princess of Wales (1997)

Memorabilia Market Royalty

The Crown has thrived as one of the most popular shows on Netflix for close to a decade. And while Ken Goldin may lay claim to the “King of Collectibles” moniker on the platform, Princess Diana’s reputation as memorabilia market royalty strengthens with each passing month.

Millions in memorabilia. At the end of June, Julien’s sold $5.4 million in royal memorabilia - Princess Diana memorabilia representing $5.1 million of that total - in the Princess Diana’s Elegance & A Royal Collection sale. Eleven articles of Princess Diana fashion sold for six-figure sums, including a Victor Edelstein evening dress that sold for $910,000.

Put that total in context. $5.1 million in Diana sales outpaces the total proceeds from a 1997 charity auction of 80 of Princess Diana’s dresses, all consigned directly by her months before her death. That Christie’s auction, held 27 years ago nearly to the exact day of the Julien’s sale, grossed $3.3 million. Now, adjusted for inflation, that’s nearly $6.4 million, but - again - that was an auction of 80 of her most prized dresses. Today, even the catalog from that event (pictured above) sells for hundreds of dollars.

Provenance matters. The top three lots in the June auction - all of which sold for more than $500,000 - were dresses that also featured in the 1997 Christie’s auction. The results are demonstrative of the power of strong provenance to the late Princess’s collection, a power which has been oft displayed in recent years.

A pattern of appreciation emerges. The appreciation in values for those three dresses is striking.

  • 1987 Victor Edelstein Evening Dress

    • 1997 Sale Price: $25,300

    • 2024 Sale Price: $910,000

    • Total Appreciation: 3,497%

    • Annual Appreciation: 14%

  • 1986 Murray Arbeid Midnight Blue Star Gown

    • 1997 Sale Price: $48,300

    • 2024 Sale Price: $780,000

    • Total Appreciation: 1,515%

    • Annual Appreciation: 11%

  • Catherine Walker Black Velvet Evening Gown

    • 1997 Sale Price: $24,150

    • 2024 Sale Price: $571,500

    • Total Appreciation: 2,266%

    • Annual Appreciation: 12%

Those annual appreciation figures (gross of buyer’s premium) cluster into a range seen in other recent sales of dresses that appeared in the 1997 sale. In addition to the three dresses sold last week, we’ve observed five other such sales in the last two years. Their annual appreciation ranged from 9-13%.

There’s a popular meme: “my biggest financial mistake was being in 8th grade in 2009 when I should’ve been buying foreclosed real estate.” But boy, oh boy do we regret not cracking open the piggy bank and heading on down to Christie’s in 1997. Your Lunchables will still be there after the auction is over, get moving!

Because we know you’re wondering: the S&P 500 returned a little under 7% annually from June 1997 to June 2024, or just under 9% with dividends reinvested. If you were to exclude buyer’s premium from the recent results above, the range of annual appreciation would generally squeeze down about 1%.

The bottom line. A generation that watched Princess Diana at the height of her notoriety is in its high earnings moment, with growing disposable wealth. Her continued relevance in pop culture ensures artifacts like the ones from the ‘97 sale remain dearly coveted. But will that relevance and appeal stand the test of time the next time these assets sell or in another 27 years?

Marilyn Monroe memorabilia appreciation has been more muted over the same period and may nod to the inevitable shift in attention that often unfolds with generational baton passing. New icons rise, and - as is the virtue of the name - existing icons continue to loom in the public consciousness, though their position in it may recede.

Photo: Wine Auction in Beaune, France. Credit: Sotheby’s

Does Money Grow on Vines?

We’ve been quick to call out the drop in prices for both fine wine and rare whisky. 

In fact, less than one month ago, we wrote a piece in this very newsletter titled “Bearish Bottles” where we highlighted the breadth of the decline. From indices falling lower each month to discounted bottle prices, it’s been easy to pile on an already beaten-down market.

Fear not this week, as we come armed with only good news of a record-breaking wine auction that showcased an emerging trend within the industry.

That trend: The outperformance of single-owner sales.

Live from the Vines. The collection comes from Pierre Chen, a Taiwanese businessman and acclaimed wine connoisseur who assembled one of the greatest arraignments of French wines to ever appear at auction. The collection is so vast that it has been broken up into a series of five events that will take place around the globe over a multi-year period. The first wines from Chen’s cellar were sold in Hong Kong in November and totaled $16.8 million. The latest installment, which closed on July 2nd , took place in the walled town of Beaune, deep in the heart of French wine country, and secured a new best for Sotheby’s in the region. When the final hammer fell, the combined total tallied $3.6 million, albeit a far cry from $16.8 million but still good enough to register as the most expensive single-owner sale by Sotheby’s in France.

Records were broken. Although record sales have been scarce in the wine and spirits auction market recently, the Chen collection has provided a glimmer of hope. In total, seven lots reached a world record price as a combination of both rare and actively traded wines struck new top prices. There were price-per-bottle records established for various vintages of DRC (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) wines like La Tâche (2005 and 2014), Montrachet (2007), and Échezeaux (2005). There were sales that shattered the previous record like the $107,150 one buyer paid for a case of 2009 Rousseau Chambertin – crushing any previous sale by more than 20%, while the 2005 Échezeaux record of $10,715 per bottle doubled the previous world record.

Pop the bottles. All those Burgundy records came from the second sale of the two-part auction. The first event of the French tour made history before a single lot was sold. The Ultimate Champagnes auction featured more than 380 lots of Champagne and marked the first-ever auction dedicated solely to the famed regional bubbly. As the cork popped and bubbles flowed, the records fell. Two lots, one featuring magnums of 1966 Dom Perignon and another that included a trio of 1990 Salon Le Mesnil magnums more than doubled their previous world records on a price-per-magnum basis while a six-magnum lot of 1985 Krug set a record for the premier producer.

Wine glasses half-full. If the records weren’t convincing enough that the wine market still has some life in it, maybe statistics around the auction participants will sell the pitch. A Sotheby’s press release reported that collectors and investors from 23 countries participated in the Champagne auction and 25% of buyers were under 40 years old. The monumental single-owner collection is also attracting a new audience, as nearly a quarter of all buyers were participating in their first Sotheby’s auction. The wine market remains one with international appeal as Sotheby’s reported ‘strong bidding’ from Southeast Asia and Europe in the Champagne series and announced that more than 70% of the overall spend in their Burgundy auction was by way of Asia.

For those in the wine investment business, it’s been sour grapes for much of the past year. If the sales at Sotheby’s tell us anything, it’s that single-owner collections will play a pivotal role in a market recovery.

Results Round-Up

  • Jayson Tatum’s jersey from Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals sold for $108,000 at Sotheby’s, well ahead of a conservative $30,000 - $50,000 estimate. Finals MVP Jaylen Brown’s jersey from the same game sold for $60,000, above an even more conservative $10,000 - $15,000 estimate. And Anthony Edwards’ incredible playoff run was acknowledged with the $84,000 sale of a jersey worn in 10 games total, including 9 playoff games.

  • The Achaemenid Silver-Gilt Rhyton from 400-330 B.C., previously in the collection of Baron Elie de Rothschild, went unsold at Sotheby’s. It was estimated to sell for between £2-3 million. However, in the same event, The Fairhaven Panels, the only known surviving work of Flemish artist De Vély, flew past its £200,000 - £300,000 estimate to sell for £1,620,000.

  • Christie’s sold a hermetic copper Louis Vuitton trunk from 1925 for €189,000, hammering in line with a €120,000 - €180,000 estimate. A hermetic copper Louis Vuitton rifle trunk from 1896 sold for €138,600.

  • Iconic sold a bevy of autographs and historical documents, including a signed Steve Jobs biography page from a 1990 Computer Publishing Conference program, which sold for $45,538.

  • Sotheby’s sold a manuscript of Da Vinci’s Trattato della pittura for £381,000, well ahead of a £100,000 - £150,000 estimate. The manuscript’s provenance dates to the late 1700s, and the manuscript itself dates to the 1630s.

  • At Julien’s, a Michael Jackson “Thriller” themed 1866 William Knabe Concert Grand Piano belonging to Rick Ross sold for $3,575.

Photo: Sotheby’s

How fast can a book from 1567 possibly appreciate in the 2020s?

As it turns out: at a decent clip.

Yesterday at Sotheby’s, Le Premier tome de l'architecture by Philibert de l’Orme sold for £279,400 against an estimate of £150,000 to £200,000. The first edition, first issue copy last sold at Christie’s in 2019 for €237,500.

Serendipitously, the euro is in essentially the exact same place against the pound as it was on the date of its sale nearly five years ago, so whether the buyer-turned-consignor was UK or Europe-based matters little to the result. Depending on that minute detail, the total appreciation would be either 37% or 39% including buyer’s premium, both amounting to an annual rate of 7%.

Those aren’t Princess Diana numbers, but they’re not too shabby for a centuries-old book in anything but shabby condition.

Photo: Goldin

7/13 - Goldin King of Collectibles Auction Ft. the Barry Bonds and Reggie Jackson Collections


Game-used Jackie Robinson bats are valuable to begin with, but what about when they come from the collection of another Hall of Famer? This bat, from the collection of Reggie Jackson, was used by Robinson in the 1953 Pennant-winning season. PSA/DNA graded it a GU 9.5, and it comes with a letter of provenance from Mr. October. Bidding currently sits at $427,000 with BP.

Photo: Hunt

7/16 - Hunt 20th Annual Live Auction at Capital One All-Star Village


Hunt is offering one of the most recognizable photographs in the hobby, used for the iconic Honus T206 card. This original photo, taken by Carl Horner, was found in the archive of The Cleveland Plain Dealer, where it spent over a century. The photograph was remounted and underwent small restoration work. It’s estimated to sell for between $100,000 - $300,000.

Also on the slate:

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