Virginia history museum to auction off hundreds of artifacts from famous Richmond estate

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Darn. I missed it. I really need more stuff.

ICYMI: Hundreds of artifacts from a famous Richmond estate are being put up for auction this week.

But some history lovers feel the sale goes against the wishes of the long-dead diplomat who left it all to the historical society

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'Like Raiders of the Lost Ark:' Virginia history museum to auction off hundreds of artifacts from famous Richmond estate
By GRAHAM MOOMAW Richmond Times-Dispatch Apr 5, 2019

The offerings up for sale include pole weapons from the Tower of London, an early 17th-century portrait of an English gentleman and his daughter, Victorian silver and a rare tapestry billed as “one of the jewels” of the collection built by a globe-trotting Richmond couple before their untimely deaths in a 1948 train crash.

The Virginia Museum of History & Culture is planning to auction off 480 artifacts from Virginia House, a Gilded Age mansion built and elaborately furnished by diplomat Alexander Weddell and his wife, Virginia. The furniture, art, books, silver and other relics will be auctioned on Wednesday in an event overseen by the renowned Freeman’s auction house in Philadelphia.

The history museum plans to use the proceeds — expected to bring in several hundred thousand dollars — to preserve other Virginia House items and the house itself, a Windsor Farms landmark that the museum’s new leader says should play a more active role in the city’s cultural life.
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But the auction has stirred unease among some history enthusiasts who feel the museum is offloading valuable resources that shouldn’t be severed from Virginia House. ... “These are world-class items. There are museums across the world salivating for some of these things,” said Mary Lynn Bayliss, a local historian who recently published a book about the Dooleys, the couple who built Maymont, another Gilded Age Richmond estate.
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