King Collection Auctioneer On The Move

Couldn't this matter have been resolved in a quiet
manner? Possibly, but you know what my take is
on this issue? Look you already know that it's about
the almighty dollar so this all comes down to how
much and can the King family get the papers back
for nothing. That is doubtful. They should have
quietly entered into negotiations thus keeping the
price down but then again as the article states, the
gennie was let out the bottle when the family went
public with the price paid for the larger collection
of papers. The King family has forever shot it's self
in the foot when it come to other undiscovered works
of Dr. King. I'll be keeping my eye on this story. Check
it out.


The typed words and ideas of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. again went on display Monday morning in preparation for auction, this time at a modest Atlanta auction gallery.
The small collection of letters, notes and speeches — some believed to have been written by King, some addressed to him — sat for 40 years in a faded green folder belonging to an anonymous woman who now lives in Maryland. The woman, said to be an Atlanta native and childhood friend of King's, came forward after the successful sale of a much larger collection sold by Sotheby's New York for $32 million (€23.9 million).

Since announcing the auction last week, Paul Brown, the owner of Gallery 63, said he has received hundreds of e-mails from the media and interested buyers. He has not heard from the King family, which has vowed to halt the auction.
"All I'm selling is pieces of paper," Brown said, adding that he understands that the family maintains the copyright of the contents. "These are pieces of history that belonged to this woman. I'm not interested in getting embroiled in any kind of controversy with the King family."
Isaac Newton Farris Jr., president and CEO of The King Center, said on Monday that an investigation into the matter by the King estate's intellectual property attorney is ongoing.

"This is not new territory for us," Farris said. "We're pretty versed in the law. We appreciate the woman holding onto them for the last 40 years, but ... you can't sell what's not yours."
Brown plans to auction the documents on April 15, and said he has already rejected an offer of $250,000 (€186,944) made by a bidder seeking to avoid the public sale.
"I thought I'd have to churn up publicity," he said as he placed the documents in two glass display cases. "Since the story hit, my phone hasn't stopped ringing."

The gallery's Web site, which Brown said averages a couple hundred hits a day, had 9,000 hits on Wednesday, the 39th anniversary of King's assassination.
Brown said he has spoken with the consignor on the telephone, but has not met her in person. According to Brown, the woman said she got the papers in a debt settlement with now-defunct radio station WERD, which broadcast upstairs from King's office at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King co-founded the organization in 1957.

The collection consists of "about 25 previously unknown documents," all dating from the early to mid-1960s, according to the gallery's Web site. Brown estimates they will sell for between $250,000 (€186,944) and $400,000 (€299,110) — up from his estimate last week of between $100,000 (€74,778) and $300,000 (€224,333).
The collection has not been authenticated or appraised. Brown said he based his figure on last summer's Sotheby's sale.

"The King family set the value on this when they sold that collection" and publicized the dollar amount, he said. "Prior to that, there was no established value."
Brown also said the sale may generate consignments from other people who were connected to King during the civil rights movement who may have similar documents. In June, the King family sold a large collection of King's papers to the city of Atlanta for $32 million (€23.9 million). Those documents, numbering more than 10,000, were placed with Atlanta's Morehouse College, the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner's alma mater





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