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≡ SCENE & HEARD ≡
Collectors alert! The Ingrid O’Neil Auction 97 is now on, with 465 items from the Athens 1896 Games forward available for bids over the next two weeks.
In terms of rarity and price, two items stand out:
● An incredibly rare 1968 Grenoble Winter Games torch is offered, beginning at $180,000.
This is one of only 33 torches made for that Games, giving it a special place among collectors. The torch relay began in December 1967 and 5,000 torch runners shared the 33 available torches until the opening of the Grenoble Winter Games on 6 February 1968.
The torch itself is extra slender and 76 cm (29.9 inches) long. It has partial red original wrapping, and weighs about 4.5 pounds, originally made in France by the Societe Technique d’ Equipment et de Fournitures Industrielles (STEFI).
● Another rare torch, also from France, but this time from the 1992 Albertville Olympic Winter Games from 1992, with bidding opening at $65,000.
The reason again is rarity, with only 133 produced. This is a gracefully-shaped steel, which designer Philippe Starck created to look like a flame itself when turned upside down. It’s only 16.5 inches long with the width expanding to 3.2 inches from a point at the bottom. Some 5,500 torch runners shared this and the other 132 torches used for the 1992 Winter Games, the last to held in the same year as the Olympic Games.
There are 10 additional items which have starting prices at $10,000 or more:
● $40,000: 1896 Athens second-place medal
● $26,000: 2024 Paris torch
● $20,000: 2020 Tokyo silver medal (cycling)
● $20,000: 2010 Vancouver Winter silver medal
● $20,000: 2012 London silver medal (gymnastics)
● $18,000: 1904 St. Louis gold participation medal
● $18,000: 1992 Albertville Winter silver medal
● $14,000: 1964 Tokyo torch
● $12,000: 1956 Stockholm equestrian bronze medal
● $10,000: 1924 Chamonix Winter bronze medal
Another recent medal won by a Ukrainian athlete is up for auction, a Tokyo 2020 women’s cycling silver medal in the Individual Sprint, won by Olena Starikova, her only Olympic medal. She is also the 2019 Worlds silver medalist in the women’s 500 m Time Trial.
As always, there are some unusual items for the curious collector:
● A set of three 1932 Olympic trading-type cards, with the “Call to the Olympic Games” official color poster on the back. There are three cards, with the fronts picturing movie stars, flags of the participating nations, the Memorial Coliseum and other Olympic venues. Bidding starts at $140.
● A 30 by 70-inch commemorative tapestry of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, picturing the Berlin Cathedral and Castle, with bidding starting at $600.
● How about two commemorative fork-and-knife sets from the cancelled Tokyo 1940 Games? The bottom end of each utensil has a torch runner under the words, “Tokyo Olympic.” Bidding starts at $160.
● A set of four coin banks from Tokyo 1964, Los Angeles 1984 (Sam the Olympic Eagle) and Nagano 1998, plus a U.S. Olympic Committee bank for Barcelona 1992 using the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile! Bidding starts at $160 for the lot.
● The “final report” from the ill-fated Denver 1976 Olympic Winter Games, including the official account of the bid and the rejection of the Games – given back to the IOC – after a funding initiative was defeated. This 120-page item starts at $300.
The auction runs through 16 November 2024.
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