The Final Frontier in Auctions

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The New York Sun

Klimt and Rembrandt, step aside: Make room for Klingons and Romulans.

Christie’s New York was the center of the “Star Trek” universe yesterday, as the show’s 40th anniversary was marked with the first official auction of memorabilia taken from the archives of the CBS Paramount Television Studios.

Conceived by Gene Roddenberry in the mid-1960s, “Star Trek” has become one of the most lucrative and famous franchises in entertainment history. Its six television series and 10 feature films have influenced popular culture around the globe — if not the galaxy.

A Christie’s doorman, Gil Perez, wore a Starfleet uniform and auctioneer Tom Lecky at times donned a British admiral’s hat from “Star Trek: Generations” during the first of three days of bidding on items such as a Klingon cloaking device, Andorian and Vulcan handheld scanners, a Vulcan burial urn, and Ferengi and Bajoran phasers.

April Gonzales of Southampton, N.Y., bought Vulcan torchères. A lot of the items in the auction, she said, “were the essence of good design.”

People arrived at warp speed for this sci-fi sale. Record producer Jori Hulkkonen of Finland hoped to purchase “something useful,” such as a “Star Trek” desk, table, or lamp to use in his work studio. Seated at the auction was Giles Aston, a resident of London dressed in Starfleet uniform. A look-alike of Patrick Stewart, the actor who played Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Mr. Aston wore a red and black outfit with four “pips”on his collar, signifying the rank of captain. He was a real contrast to the mere civilians in coat and tie. One of the reasons he likes “Star Trek,” Mr. Aston said, was the non-racist and non-sexist Starfleet ethos that aims “to look after the world”

Mr. Aston bid for and won a Reman uniform that he called “superb.” (For the uninitiated: The Remans hail from Remus, a planet where many are subjugated laborers working in mines digging for dilithium.) How much did Mr. Aston pay? “Too much,” he said, adding that many of the items went for sums that were “not pocket-money prices.”

Robert Granger of Columbus, Ga., arrived in Gotham with his 16-year-old daughter, Laura, who was more interested in seeing “The Phantom of the Opera.” He said he connected to “Star Trek.” During the era of space exploration in the 1960s, he said, the show “was an extension of that.”

The crowd cheered as the presence of actor Avery Brooks, known for his role as Captain Benjamin Sisko of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” was announced to the auction room. Earlier in attendance was a man in a blue shirt dressed as Spock, the pointy-eared walking logician.

The director of Special Collections at Christie’s, Cathy Elkies, said she was happily surprised by the price levels. Many were abuzz over how the “Borg Cube” enemy base model sold for $96,000, when listed only as $1,000-$1,500. The catalog describes it as “partly covered with layers of intricately-detailed etched brass and styrene parts.”

By evening, the most expensive item was a model of the Enterprise-E spaceship, reaching a price of $120,000. Many smaller items were selling at least two to three times the estimate, and major items sold at 10 times the estimate. “Forty years of a brand is very powerful,” Ms. Elkies said, adding that the sale was an “iconic collection” and the show had a fan base extending over multiple generations.

“Those prices don’t surprise me at all,” a professor of history at Smith College, Robert Weir, who has taught popular culture, said. “It is kind of the marriage of celebrity and geekdom.” He said an apt analogy for Trekkies were “Deadheads,” devoted fans of the band the Grateful Dead.”

One eagerly awaited item for sale Saturday is a replica of the Starship Enterprise bridge from the original television series, featuring four consoles, a doorway, and four control stations. An Enterprise-E captain’s chair yesterday sold for $62,400.

Musing at a Midtown club five blocks south, Peter Cullum said a phaser weapon could come in useful in his work in public relations.”That’s a way to handle clients,” he said. “Put it on stun.”


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