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Big-Ticket Auction Helps Children

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By BILL HUTCHINSON, The Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: January 29, 2008

NAPLES - It did not seem like a good sign Saturday when the Bentley sold for only $450,000.

A Bentley in last year's Naples Winter Wine Festival Auction went for more than a million, suggesting that maybe the grim national economy, as some had feared, was having a dampening effect on this year's event.

During its eight years of existence, the Naples Winter Wine Festival Auction has emerged as the undisputed king of U.S. charity wine auctions, with a total take last year of $15.6 million.

But that was with the million-dollar Bentley and the $2 million Rolls-Royces and before the term "subprime crisis" had entered the American vernacular.

This year, with some organizers gently counseling lowered expectations, the relative bargain price of the Bentley seemed an ominous sign - scarcely $90,000 over retail, if such a car were actually available, which it is not. All 550 of the Brooklands Touring Coupe models were reserved long ago.

Festival representatives spent much of Saturday stressing that the auction - which their own press materials said drew a record 635 attendees paying a record $7,500 a head for a weekend of auction-related activities at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort - was not about numbers. Rather, they said, it was "all about the kids."

Disadvantaged and abused children from nearby Immokalee are the principal beneficiaries of the annual auction, which has raised more than $55 million, all told.

The children, an auctioneer reminded the crowd at one point, grow up in a community with a median household income of $24,000, "So bid high and bid often."

To make sure the bidding stayed spirited, participants were seated under a massive tent at colorfully decorated tables for 12 and supplied with noisemakers and an endless supply of wine.

Volunteers waving silver stars roughly the size of a stock table encouraged the bidders, and a blare of recorded music accompanied each sale, usually boomer-age anthems along the likes of "Little Deuce Coupe" and "Rockin' Robin."

Halfway through the afternoon, after the special-order Harley-Davidson ($240,000) and before the eight-day cruise to anywhere in the world ($220,000), the revelry level was such that the auctioneer had to ask the crowd to pipe down a bit.

They complied, but not for long. This was not a group to be hushed during what has become known as one of the most deliciously over-the-top displays of American-style conspicuous consumption outside of the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog.

It was not on the whole a flashy group - no Russian billionaires, no show biz folks, although the two biggest names under the tent were TV personalities: "Top Chef" host Tom Colicchio and Judge Judy.

For the most part the attendees seemed to be what might be called the working-class rich, people whose wealth has accrued from a job of some kind - cruise line president, mergers and acquisitions banker - although scarcely one that pays an hourly wage.

Hollywood's only role in the proceedings was as an auction lot. Shortly after 4 p.m., two Naples couples jointly spent $1 million to play walk-on roles in "Desperate Housewives" and attend the Oscars, if there are any this year, plus trips and dinners and a bunch of wine. It was the top ticket of the day.

A trip to Paris and a seat at the Chanel show, plus various dinners and receptions and a bunch of wine: $300,000.

A sensational, one-of-a-kind Bulgari necklace, plus a trip to Italy, dinners, receptions and wine: $240,000.

A specially customized Maserati GranTurismo, trip, dinners and so forth: $350,000.

Final tally: $14 million, assuming all the checks clear, which during eight years they always have.

Festival organizers took pains at the end of the day to point out that $14 million is, after all, nothing to sneeze at.

"We're ecstatic," insisted Ann Bain, a trustee of the Naples Children and Education Foundation, sponsor of the day.

"The children," she said, "that's what it's all about."

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