The Legendary auction on Paddle 8 has a lot of lots of legends memorabilia. This used to be Julien’s Auction‘s territory but Paddle 8 is now getting in on the act. I was surprised to see the (very famous) photograph of Madonna above listed online as “Artist Unknown.” Hello!? That’s by Herb Ritts – for SURE. If you can Google, you’ll find this out in less than one second. These sorts of obvious mistakes always make me a little skeptical that, A. auctions sell things they aren’t sure of ALL THE TIME, B. people buy things that are falsely attributed or not authentic ALL THE TIME. Having said that, everything else in this online auction is such fun to look at. I love pop star ephemera, it’s really just the junk of everyday life but with scribbling of a famous person’s pen or it came out of their junk drawer. These things, to me, are the real artifacts of popular culture. I have several such things in my “display case of life” like a bounced check from Courtney Love and the pajamas of Ray Bolger, the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz. But right now, the credit card of Kurt Cobain is up to $22,600so I’m staring to think …. hmmm. Maybe I’ll make a copy of that check and sell the original. I know, she was married to him, but Courtney ISN’T Kurt. I guess I’ll hang onto it for a while longer…
