SKIV & TAKE: An unidentified buyer (above) yesterday bought these shorts once owned by Bernard Madoff.
SKIV & TAKE: An unidentified buyer yesterday bought these shorts once owned by Bernard Madoff (above).
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This guy’s going to be closer to Bernie Madoff than most people ever want to be.
A Long Island man shelled out a drawer-dropping $1,700 at a Manhattan auction for a stash of the mega-fraudster’s unmentionables — including pairs of his boxers and hundreds of socks, some of which were gently used.
While the $65 billion swindler’s skivvies may have been the most unusual part of Lot 380, the winner, who did not give his name, had his eye on 138 pairs of Bernie’s ultra-luxurious Charvet socks.
“They are brand new so I don’t have to buy socks for the next two or three years,” he said, after a furious round of price-jockeying with an online bidder. “I don’t really know about the boxers. I just bought it for the socks.”
Well, some of the socks that is. He still hasn’t figured out quite what to do with the 109 pairs of used socks that he acquired.
As for the 11 pairs of brand-new, monogrammed designer drawers, he plans to pawn them off on his friends and relatives as presents.
“It’s a great Christmas gift to people because it’s not something they would buy for themselves,” said the collector, who still hasn’t claimed his prize.
The lot, which also included a pair of black silk Armani pants and one pair of Prada pantyhose, fetched $400 more than was expected.
Top among the more than $2 million in treasure from the Ponzi king’s palace that sold yesterday at the Sheraton New York Hotel in Midtown as part of an effort to recoup cash for victims was the diamond engagement ring that Madoff gave to his wife Ruth.
The massive, 10.54-karat, emerald-cut rock, sold for $550,000, nearly doubling the pre-sale estimate of $300,000.
The ring buyer didn’t want to give his name. Asked why he bought it, he told The Post, “This has notoriety because it came from a huge crook. But once this huge crook sells it, it’s just another diamond. It’s just a diamond, that’s all it is.”
Also fetching a huge price was Madoff’s 1917 Steinway grand piano, which Long Island real-estate investor John Rodger, 81, bought for $42,000. He said it would be a humorous addition to his collection of pianos, and would go in his foyer.
“It’s got a little bit of history to it. It’s historical. It’s hysterical, too. It’s a conversation piece,” he said, adding that he probably overpaid for it by $7,000, but didn’t care because of the Madoff connection.
Several items put up for sale yesterday didn’t sell at an auction last year, including some watches.
This year’s lots also included hundreds of shoes, ties and suits, dozens of watches and jewelry items, golf clubs, TVs, DVD players, books, exercise equipment, paintings and furniture.
One big-ticket item that sold early yesterday was an Iranian rug that went for $30,000 to a representative of the shop that sold it to Madoff.
“That rug could go to Sotheby’s for immediately more than it did here today,” said Zach Zanan, 27, whose father owns ZZ Imports and personally sold it to Madoff. Zanan didn’t know the original price.