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American Morning
Capitalism, Communism Meet on the Auction Block
Aired April 24, 2001 - 11:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on, we've got something very interesting that just kind of popped up here us on. Mao Tse-tung was the leader of China's Cultural Revolution, taking the nation into its communist era. But you can have a bit of that history, thanks to a little, simple capitalism.
Sotheby's Auction House is holding a special online of artifacts and memorabilia from the Mao-Nixon era. Sotheby's senior vice president Marsha Malinowski is now with us in New York to show us a few of the things that are going to be on the auction block.
Good morning, how are you are?
MARSHA MALINOWSKI, SOTHEBY'S: I'm fine. How are you this morning?
HARRIS: I'm intrigued. How's that for an answer?
MALINOWSKI: You should be intrigued. It's a wonderful pile of stuff. So, I can walk you through it.
HARRIS: Take us through it. Let's go for it.
MALINOWSKI: All right, first of all, let's go with the ping-pong paddles, my personal favorite. We have a set of paddles from about 1972.
HARRIS: Can you hold those up so we can see them better. There you go.
MALINOWSKI: We've got Mao on one side, one paddle and then the other paddle has Nixon from the historic little visit that Nixon made in 1972. The paddles were Estimated at $250 to $350, and right now, right before I left to come to CNN, the current bid was $425, and there still is about 20 -- I think about 23 more hours left before this one sells.
HARRIS: Can you show us -- show us the Nixon sign.
MALINOWSKI: You like the Nixon one, huh?
HARRIS: Well, whoever made these didn't like Richard Nixon, it looks like.
MALINOWSKI: Well, they are caricatures on your ping-pong paddles. There's no two ways about it.
HARRIS: Oh, my goodness. OK, all right, what else do you have?
MALINOWSKI: On a little bit more of a serious note, we have three of the little red books that have all of Mao's propaganda, little phrases and statements, but we have the panoramic view of having one in English, one in Russian and one in French so that everyone would know exactly what he was -- he was trying to communicate to the people.
HARRIS: So, these are his personal books?
MALINOWSKI: No, they're not his personal books. They were distributed to the masses.
HARRIS: OK, gotcha.
MALINOWSKI: And those have an estimate of $500 to $800.
Next is another really wonderful, whimsical piece of propaganda. It's an alarm clock, and it has little soldiers, people from the proletariat, holding up their little red book, and the clock goes down and there is a little plane that goes into orbit and it rings really loudly, just so that you know. The estimate on that one is about $500 to $700, and there has been a fair amount of interest in this one as well.
If you're looking for something a little bit bigger and larger for your home, you can go for the Mao sculpture, which is a wonderful piece showing soldiers, of course, with their little red books and their ammunition next to them; good soldiers of war. This one is a little bit more expensive, $1,500 to $2,500, But it is really -- it's a perfect example of the propaganda that was -- the propaganda art that was being distributed.
HARRIS: Yes, it looks like the message was consistent, too, like carry that book or else.
MALINOWSKI: Exactly, you had to have the book. Exactly.
HARRIS: Interesting.
MALINOWSKI: And yes, the little red book is virtually on every -- either a quotation from the little red book or a depiction of the little red book is virtually on all of the 150 items that happen to be in this Sothebys.com sale.
HARRIS: Now, what is this Eeny Meeny Miney Mao I'm hearing about?
MALINOWSKI: The Eeny Meeny Miney Mao is another piece, just another lot in the sale which I believe was three items, three busts of Mao, and I think that there was a bit of cataloging for this sale that was done with the whimsy as well as intellect, and so that's why, I think, there was a little catchy title of Eeny Meeny Miney Mao, and I think that that's why it caught one of your people's attention. HARRIS: I guess so.
MALINOWSKI: It works. I think it works.
HARRIS: I like you said, "the best of Mao." It's like a CD collection or something like that.
MALINOWSKI: That's right.
HARRIS: Now, this is all being online, is that -- or is this...
MALINOWSKI: That's right. It's on our Internet -- Sotheby's Internet site, Sothebys.com. It closes in about 23 hours, this particular sale. It's -- and there is everything -- there is something for everyone. There's, in the Mao sale, it ranges from $200 to $6,000, but Sothebys.com has virtually anything and everything you could possibly think of, and the wonderful thing about it is it's a guaranteed site.
HARRIS: Well, quickly, can you tell us if all these -- were these things all owned by the same person or is this...
MALINOWSKI: Yes, it's one of our -- it's actually one of our Internet associates who is an avid collector who pulled this together and wanted to have a sale online.
HARRIS: You kind of wonder if Mao is going to will roll over tonight in the grave if he sees that somebody's going to make a lot of money off of him. Marsha Malinowski, thanks much.
MALINOWSKI: You're very welcome.
HARRIS: Thanks.
MALINOWSKI: Thank you. Bye-bye.
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