In a phone call to TheBurg this afternoon, Guernsey’s president Arlan Ettinger assured Harrisburg residents that the city would not be shortchanged in its income from last week’s auction.
Referring to the fatiguing effect of “possibly the hardest auction in history,” he explained that Tuesday’s numbers were hastily calculated, and that a complete accounting would be submitted and open to scrutiny within 30 days, as promised in the auction house’s contract with the city.
“I didn’t want to give out numbers,” Ettinger said, adding that he did so at the behest of city officials, who were eager to present a tally at Tuesday’s conference. “These numbers were generated for me by members of our team, and it could have been rushed.”
The members of Guernsey’s team, whom Ettinger declined to name, appear to have come up with the reported commission by applying a flat rate of 18 percent to the $3.14 million in total sales. If so, they neglected the clause in the city’s contract with Guernsey’s, which specifies a reduced rate of 15 percent for the second million dollars in sales and a further reduced rate of 12.5 percent for all proceeds above two million.
If his team’s calculation was incorrect, Ettinger said, all discrepancies would be rectified in the final accounting. “No one is going to be shortchanged,” he said. “We’re grateful and honored to work with Harrisburg. We’re doing it the right way.”
Guernsey’s is also slated to manage the auction of numerous leftover items, largely historical documents, in New York in mid-September.
