Auction item at fortcoming fundraiser

[newvillefan]

Hi all

A question for you. How come Richard's grand piano is up for auction at the forthcoming fundraiser? I thought it went for $25000 last year to a silent bidder.

Does this mean Richard was in fact the silent bidder and bought it back last year without anyone knowing?! Or did someone donate their bid and not take the piano but rather leave it in the Center's possession as a piece of prize memorabilia? If that's the case, it's a bit of a cheek that it's under the hammer again!

As quoted on the Carpenter Center website:

"Auction Items

A preview of the exciting items up for auction at this year’s Top of the World fundraiser include…

Richard Carpenter’s custom built Baldwin SD-10 black lacquer, 9 foot grand piano "

http://www.carpenterarts.org/TopWorld.asp

Stephen

 

[Murray]

It's also possible, I suppose, that Richard originally owned two of these pianos.

Murray

 

[newvillefan]

I did think that might be the case, but then I thought, at this rate, he's going to end up with no piano of his own left to play!

On a similar note, do you know what happened to the one that was in the Newville living room?

Stephen

 

[JAZZ4JEFF]

This is pure speculation, but I don't think anyone bid on the piano last year. I attended the benefit and there were no bidders present. They had over 200 different items available for silent auction, and there were no bids on the sheet in front of the piano. My quess at the time was that to save face, they said it was purchased by a private bidder.

I forgot the minimum bid, but it was rather steep. Richard had brought the piano to the event for his mini five song concert. The event still raised thousands of dollars for the Carpenter in the schools charity, so it still was a great success. I think that the price tag for the piano was too high.

Again, I don't know for sure. We'll see what happens this year.

 

[PJ]

I was there at last year's TOTW Benefit and felt that since the original value estimate was never reached -Richard probably acted as silent bidder (possibly agreed in advance ?) and CPAC gained $25000 extra to boost the final total

Richard has many pianos / keyboards -both at home and stored at Carpenters warehouse with other Carpenters mementos.A few items are displayed at Carpenters Exhibit -but many more remain in storage

I doubt whether Richard will run out of pianos .....

Peter