WASHINGTON (AP) — A gold court necklace made of glass beads that belonged to Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg is going up for auction for a charity, the first time one of her signature ties will be for sale.
The piece is part of a collection of around 100 items being sold at an online auction starting Wednesday. It concludes on September 16, just days before the second anniversary of the liberal icon’s death at the age of 87.
In addition to the necklace, items up for auction include a pair of Ginsburg’s opera glasses, a wooden gavel and artwork that once hung in her Washington apartment.
There are also peculiar items. His son, James, said in an interview that when talking about the collection “it’s hard not to mention the decoration on the cake. The fondant sculpture was commissioned by friends for one of the judge’s birthdays and depicts her standing in judicial robes with her arms outstretched on the prow of a battleship dubbed “The Notorious RBG”, the judge’s nickname. Ginsburg said she reminds him a bit of a scene from the movie “Titanic.”
The auction also includes other Ginsburg fashion pieces: a white handbag, a shawl, scarves and two sets of fishnet lace gloves. She started wearing gloves in the late 1990s after undergoing treatment for colon cancer. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female Supreme Court justice, suggested them as a way to prevent illness while shaking hands, but Ginsburg liked the gloves so much that she continued to wear them.
But it was Ginsburg’s necklaces, which she wore on the bench as an accessory to her black robe, that were her most notable fashion item. She had dozens, her son and daughter-in-law said. The family donated several to the Smithsonian, including a shiny black one that she wore to the bank when she dissented in a case. Speaking at an event in 2020, Ginsburg, who became a pop culture figure in later years, said that at the time she was receiving a necklace “at least once a week” from fans around the world.
Initially, the auction had been planned to include two of Ginsburg’s necklaces. The other, made of cloth, was a gift from her intern. Sewn into the interior is a family motto: “It’s not sacrifice, it’s family.” But the family said in a statement Tuesday that they had decided to keep the necklace and loan it permanently to “an appropriate institution where it can be displayed for all to see.” The family did not provide additional details.
The auction is the third this year for items owned by the court, and her son said it will be the last. In April, some 150 items, including art Ginsburg displayed in his home and office, raised more than $800,000 for the Washington National Opera, one of the late judge’s passions.
Bonhams, which is holding the latest auction, estimated that the current group of objects sells for a total of just under $50,000. In January, however, an online auction of his books also held by Bonhams fetched $2.3 million, almost 30 times the pre-sale estimate.
Bonhams said she expects the necklace to sell for between $3,000 and $5,000. However, at the previous book auction, a copy of the 1957-58 Harvard Law Review with Ginsburg’s annotations sold for more than $100,000, breaking Bonhams’ estimate of $2,500 to $3,500.
Proceeds from the current sale will fund a donation in Ginsburg’s honor to benefit SOS Children’s Villages, an organization that supports vulnerable children around the world. Ginsburg’s daughter-in-law, Patrice Michaels, is on the organization’s advisory board. Michaels, a songwriter and singer, said the mallet up for auction is one Ginsburg gave her to use while she performed a composition she had written about Ginsburg’s dissent. The gold beaded necklace was also one she chose from Ginsburg’s collection.
“I thought it was literally so beautiful,” Michaels said. “I was very attracted to the aesthetic of him and the feeling that he was as elegant as my mother-in-law.”
Source: apnews.com