NY philanthropist's treasures to go on sale

New York will see glittering echoes of America's Gilded Age this year with the auctions of jewelry and other property belonging to legendary philanthropist Brooke Astor and the reclusive heiress Huguette Clark. Astor, who died in 2007 at the grand old age of 105, was the epitome of New York's old money set, combining a life of luxury with high-profile charity work. On September 24-25, Sotheby's will auction Astor's art, furniture and jewelry collections, the auction house said Thursday. Proceeds will go to her longtime favorite charities, such as the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the 800 lots will be Old Master drawings by Canaletto and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Chinese lacquer furniture from the Qing dynasty, and Astor's fabulously stylish jewels. These include an emerald and diamond necklace estimated to be worth $250,000 to $350,000, and a gold, diamond and ruby brooch in the shape of a lion estimated at between $20,000 and $30,000. On April 17, Christie's auctioneers plan to auction the stunning jewels of a New York heiress who was similar to Astor only in being extremely wealthy. Unlike the socialite Astor, Clark became an extreme recluse as a young woman and was barely seen in public for her last seven decades until her death last year, at the age of 104. Inheriting a copper fortune, but childless, Clark sealed up her Cartier, Tiffany and other classic jewels in the 1940s. She shut herself off with an expensive doll collection in her vast Manhattan residence, before deciding to live in a New York hospital. Now these pieces of a vanished era, including a pink nine-carat diamond ring estimated to sell for up to $8 million, will go on the block, fetching an estimated $10 million, Christie's said this week.