Fans Bid Adieu to the Last of Liberace Trinkets and Treasures

Mike Szapko leaned forward in his seat, fixing his gaze on the auctioneer on the stage below. Bidding had started on Item No. 71, and Szapko, a chiropractor from Mission Viejo, aimed to win.

The object of his ardor was a collection of decorative glassware, including a cake plate, biscuit jar and bowl etched with roses. The set--accompanied by a glass boudoir lamp--seemed rather ordinary. Except for one thing:

It used to belong to Liberace.

“Aren’t they lovely?” a triumphant Szapko said later, after competitors failed to top his bid of $250. “I think this was quite a deal.”

Szapko, a die-hard admirer of the late pianist who also shelled out $200 for a silver-painted candelabra, was one of 800 people who spent Sunday afternoon bidding on the final remnants of the Liberace legacy.

Fans of the flamboyant entertainer, collectors and even a few vacationing students in town for spring break packed the historic Plaza Theater to barter over 2,000 items with an estimated value in excess of $400,000.

Even Palm Springs Police Chief Don Burnett popped in. Burnett’s wife, Dee, enjoys Liberace’s music, and the couple took home a white wicker settee for $200.

“We needed it,” Dee Burnett said, “and it’s also nice to have a piece of celebrity furniture.”

The goods sold Sunday represent the contents of Liberace’s Palm Springs mansion, a sprawling Spanish-style estate near downtown dubbed “The Cloisters.” Bidders were permitted to view the collection during tours of the home last week, while those who missed out made offers based on a videotape and catalogue of items supplied by the auction firm sponsoring the event, Butterfield & Butterfield.

The Cloisters, a former hotel purchased by Liberace in 1967, was one of six homes owned by the pianist. While less extravagant than others, the Palm Springs residence was the entertainer’s most beloved and the place he spent the days before his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1987, said Jamie James, Liberace’s publicist for 20 years.

The Liberace Foundation for the Performing and Creative Arts, based in Las Vegas, had hoped to keep The Cloisters and operate it as a museum, something Liberace requested in his trust. But the Palm Springs City Council refused to grant a permit for the venture, concluding that the traffic generated by a tourist attraction was inappropriate for a residential neighborhood.

The foundation’s board of directors thus agreed to sell the 7,000-square-foot home, and it was purchased earlier this year by a San Francisco developer for $750,000.

The furniture, china, artwork and knickknacks sold Sunday were the last of Liberace’s possessions. The bulk of his belongings were disposed of at a 1988 auction at the Los Angeles Convention Center, and a small collection is on permanent display at the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Proceeds from both auctions went to the foundation, which awards music scholarships.

“It’s the end,” publicist James said wistfully. “This is the last of it, and it’s really quite sad.”

The Cloisters collection, James said, perhaps best reflected Liberace’s lavish yet whimsical lifestyle. There were valuable antiques, like a Victorian carved oak dining room table and set of eight high-backed mahogany chairs--purchased Sunday for $11,275.

But there were also dozens of cheap trinkets--like a giant candle in the shape of a white poodle--that cluttered every conceivable nook of the Palm Springs home. The startling range of items, many of them gaudy and garish, seemed to validate the entertainer’s reputation as the king of kitsch.

“It horrified some people that he would place a priceless piece next to a plastic toy,” James said. “But if it made him happy, the monetary value was meaningless. He just wanted his home to be a surprising, amusing place for his guests.”

Among the most intriguing items drawing bids Sunday were pieces Liberace used to create “theme suites” for visitors to his desert home. From the Rudolph Valentino Suite, for example, there was a brass, Empire-style sleigh bed decorated with swan heads and claw feet. Estimated value: $2,000.

Those on a tighter budget could have gone home with a pair of fish tanks used as a centerpiece in The Cloisters’ drawing room. Those were a steal--just $70 for the two.

True fans like Szapko had scads of goodies to choose from, like family portraits and Liberace’s personalized travel case--a surprisingly modest thing made of simulated alligator skin with the entertainer’s name monogrammed in gilt.

And for $182, one lucky bidder purchased some sure-fire conversation pieces--two cases of paper napkins imprinted with the Liberace logo.

Louise Alexander, 82, has been an ardent Liberace fan for four decades, since that first time she caught his show in her hometown of St. Louis.

“We took the boys--they were both taking piano at the time--and he was such an inspiration,” recalled a misty-eyed Alexander, who now lives in Sherman Oaks. “His music was so lovely.”

Years later, Alexander got a backstage pass to watch the filming of a Liberace movie in Hollywood. As he was leaving the set, Liberace “came up and greeted me, and then kissed my hand. Well, you know,” Alexander recalled, “that was quite a thrill.”

On Sunday, Alexander spent $125 on some glassware--”a small memento, something that will fit in my condo,” she said.

Down the aisle, Colin Ticehurst and his wife, Lee, were bidding on six bar stools made of wrought iron with swiveling padded seats. The Ticehursts, retirees from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, who are vacationing in Palm Springs, figured the stools would make a great souvenir.

“These were a steal,” Colin Ticehurst, a pianist himself and a fan of Liberace’s talent and “flair,” said of his $250 purchase. “They’re going to Canada.”