Nathan Ellgren
FILE - In this image from video, Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, right, hangs up a piece of modern art belonging to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg inside Potomack Company Auctions in Alexandria, Va., Monday, April 11, 2022. An online auction of 150 of items owned by Ginsburg raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera. The opera was one of the late justice’s passions. (AP Photos/Nathan Ellgren, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s silver tea set is going to a family with a 5-year-old daughter who once was Ginsburg for Halloween. A medal Ginsburg was awarded when inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame is going to a family that demonstrated recently for reproductive rights. And a drawing of her that hung in her office was a Utah-based scientist’s Mother’s Day gift to his wife.
All told, an online auction of 150 of items owned by the late justice raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera, one of the late justice’s passions. The auction ended in late April, and buyers are now picking up items or arranging to have them shipped to their homes in 38 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Germany. Winning bids ranged from $850 to $55,000.
Elizabeth Haynie Wainstein, the owner of The Potomack Company auction house in Virginia, said they were “just really blown away by the interest.” A pre-sale estimate was that the auction could raise $50,000 to $80,000.
Nathan Ellgren
FILE - In this image from video, modern art depicting Native Americans belonging to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is seen inside Potomack Company Auctions in Alexandria, Va., Monday, April 11, 2022. An online auction of 150 of items owned by Ginsburg raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera. The opera was one of the late justice’s passions. (AP Photo/Nathan Ellgren, File)
Ginsburg died of cancer at age 87 in September 2020. In her later years, the court’s second female justice and liberal icon also become a pop culture figure known as the “Notorious RBG.” In January, an online auction of her books brought in $2.3 million, almost 30 times the pre-sale estimate, according to Bonhams, the company that conducted the auction.
Washington National Opera artistic director Francesca Zambello, a friend of Ginsburg’s, said the auction’s proceeds will be “a huge help this year as we try to cultivate the return of our audience” amid the lingering coronavirus pandemic.
The auction’s biggest ticket item was the drawing of Ginsburg, which sold for $55,000. The image had accompanied a 2015 article about her in The New York Times. Ginsburg liked it so much she got a copy for her Supreme Court office signed by the artist, Eleanor Davis. The buyer asked that his name not be made public.
Nathan Ellgren
FILE - In this image from video, a Picasso sketch belonging to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen inside Potomack Company Auctions in Alexandria, Va., Monday, April 11, 2022. An online auction of 150 of items owned by Ginsburg raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera. The opera was one of the late justice’s passions. (AP Photo/Nathan Ellgren, File)
Other high-dollar sales included modern art that Ginsburg had collected. A terracotta Pablo Picasso jug she displayed in her living room sold for $25,000 while an earthenware Picasso plate that hung in her dining room sold for $22,500. A print of Josef Albers’ “Red Orange Wall,” which hung in Ginsburg’s bedroom, sold for $27,500. Albers was among Ginsburg’s favorite artists, and an original work of his on loan from the Smithsonian was prominently displayed in her office at the court.
Even much less valuable Ginsburg pieces went for large sums. A drawing that one of Ginsburg’s grandchildren, Paul Spera, made as a child showing his grandmother as the Statue of Liberty sold for $12,000. At the top, Spera had written “Bubbie of Liberty,” using the Yiddish word for grandma.
Other sales included $5,000 for a glass souvenir vase given to attendees of a luncheon at the Capitol following President Barack Obama’s first inauguration, $16,000 for a black mink coat with Ginsburg’s name sewn in a pocket, and $30,000 for her 2002 National Women’s Hall of Fame medal. Buyers paid another 27% in auction fees on top of their winning bid.
Before her death, Ginsburg displayed a number of the items that were auctioned in her apartment at the Watergate complex in Washington. The auction’s online catalog included images of how Ginsburg had displayed those items.
Nathan Ellgren
FILE - In this image from video, a black mink fur coat, right, and a signed opera poster belonging to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are seen inside Potomack Company Auctions in Alexandria, Va., Monday, April 11, 2022. An online auction of 150 of items owned by Ginsburg raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera. The opera was one of the late justice’s passions. (AP Photo/Nathan Ellgren, File)
Jennifer DiBrienza, a California-based educator, was the medal’s winning bidder, spending nearly twice what she had planned to. When bidding near the end of the auction pushed up the price, she thought to herself: “I’ve been winning this for days. I can’t give it up now,” she said.
DiBrienza, who along with her three children demonstrated last week following the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn a nationwide right to abortion the court recognized in 1973, said she hopes having Ginsburg’s medal will be “a reason to talk about her.”
Nathan Ellgren
FILE - In this image from video, a silver coffee and tea set, left, and a signed photo of an opera singer, belonging to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are seen inside Potomack Company Auctions in Alexandria, Va., Monday, April 11, 2022. An online auction of 150 of items owned by Ginsburg raised $803,650 for Washington National Opera. The opera was one of the late justice’s passions. (AP Photo/Nathan Ellgren, File)
Krishan Paramesvaran was the winning bidder on two items: a wood sculpture for $3,500 and a silver tea set for $5,000. The tech executive and father of three said his family plans to put the sculpture in their living room and the tea set alongside china in their dining room. The tea set will be mostly for display, he said, though he imagines it will get used once or twice. Paramesvaran said his 5-year-old daughter, the one who dressed as Ginsburg for Halloween, knows it’s coming and they had in the past talked with her about “powerful women” and “the impact that RBG has had.”
Right now, he said, the family is “super, super excited” as they wait for the items to be shipped to them in Washington state. Said Paramesvaran: “We have not been able to stop thinking about the fact that we’re about to have something that she owned in our house.”
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J. Scott Applewhite
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg addresses reporters in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday, June 14, 1993 in Washington after President Bill Clinton said he would nominate the judge for the Supreme Court. A three-month search ended Monday and the President picked Ginsburg, 60, a federal appeals judge. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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John Duricka
Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, holds a copy of the U.S. Constitution while meeting with Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Bill Clinton choice for the vacancy on the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, June 16, 1993. They met in Thurmond's Capitol Hill office in Washington. (AP Photo/John Duricka)
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John Duricka
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, talks to Supreme Court nominee Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg prior to the start of her confirmation hearing before the committee on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, July 20, 1993 in Washington. (AP Photo/John Duricka)
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Marcy Nighswander
FILE - In this Aug. 10, 1993, file photo, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes the court oath from Chief Justice William Rehnquist, right, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Ginsburg's husband Martin holds the Bible and President Bill Clinton looks on at left. The cookbook “Chef Supreme” published in Dec. 2011 and contains nearly 50 of the late Martin Ginsburg’s recipes. (AP Photo/Marcy Nighswander, File)
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Ken Heinen
As President Bill Clinton looks on, Chief Justice William Rehnquist helps the Supreme Court's newest member Ruth Bader Ginsburg sign the court's oath card, on Friday, Oct. 1, 1993 at the court in Washington. (AP Photo/ Pool/ Ken Heinen)
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GERALD HERBERT
U.S. Supreme Court Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Stephen Breyer, right enter stage center as they play the roles of themselves in the Washington Opera's production of Die Fledermaus at Independence Hall in Washington, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2003. Despite their limited performing arts resumes, the three made rare special appearances, with non-singing roles, in the opera. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
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ED BAILEY
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, right, shares laugh with her husband Martin as they listen to Justice Stephen Breyer speak at Columbia Law School Friday, Sept. 12, 2003. The occassion celebrated the 10th anniversary of her appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States. (AP Photo/Ed Bailey)
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Elise Amendola
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks to students at New England Law School in Boston Friday, March 13, 2009. Ginsburg said advice and camaraderie from her fellow justices have helped her in her fight against pancreatic cancer. The 75-year-old had surgery last month to remove a small malignant tumor but returned to the bench without missing a day of work. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
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Alex Brandon
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is photographed in her chambers in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Matt Sayles
The Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen on stage at the Women's Conference Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010, in Long Beach, Calif., (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
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Charles Sykes
Award recipient Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg appears onstage at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards on Monday, Nov. 12, 2012 in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
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Charles Dharapak
Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses for a photo in her chambers at the Supreme Court in Washington, Wednesday, July 24, 2013, before an interview with the Associated Press. Ginsburg said during the interview that it was easy to foresee that Southern states would push ahead with tougher voter identification laws and other measures once the Supreme Court freed them from strict federal oversight of their elections. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
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J. Scott Applewhite
President Barack Obama greets Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before giving his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday Jan. 28, 2014. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Jacquelyn Martin
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg attends the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, as the President and first lady arrive, Sunday, Dec. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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Jacquelyn Martin
Supreme Court Justices, from left, Elena Kagan, Samuel Anthony Alito, Jr., Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Anthony Kennedy participate in prayers at a private ceremony in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, where late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia lies in repose. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
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Craig Fritz
U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is introduced during the keynote address for the State Bar of New Mexico's Annual Meeting held in Pojoaque, N.M., Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. (AP Photo/Craig Fritz)
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Marcio Jose Sanchez
FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2017 file photo, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. Ginsburg is praising the media at a time when the Trump administration has accused reporters of being dishonest and delivering “fake news.” (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
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J. Scott Applewhite
The justices of the U.S. Supreme Court gather for an official group portrait to include new Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, top row, far right, Thursday. June 1, 2017, at the Supreme Court Building in Washington. Seated, front row, from left are, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, and Associate Justice Stephen Breyer. Back row, standing, from left are, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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Carolyn Kaster
In this Sept. 20, 2017, file photo, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reacts to applause as she is introduced by William Treanor, Dean and Executive Vice President of Georgetown University Law Center, at the Georgetown University Law Center campus in Washington. In different circumstances, Ginsburg might be on a valedictory tour in her final months on the Supreme Court. But in the era of Donald Trump, the 84-year-old Ginsburg is packing her schedule and sending signals she intends to keep her seat on the bench for years.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
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Alex Brandon
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg applauds after a performance in her honor after she spoke about her life and work during a discussion at Georgetown Law School in Washington on Friday, April 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Caron Creighton
US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks after the screening of "RBG," the documentary about her, in Jerusalem, Thursday, July 5, 2018. Ginsburg says she hopes the traditional "bipartisan spirit" of congressional hearings for judges will once again prevail rather than recent votes that have divided along party lines. (AP Photo/Caron Creighton)
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Jacquelyn Martin
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves the stage after speaking to first-year students at Georgetown Law, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
