The white cloth judicial collar is embroidered with the words “Family, not sacrifice.”
Courtesy of Bonhams
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More than 100 personal items that belonged to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be made available through Bonhams Online, with proceeds going to SOS Children’s Villages, an international humanitarian organization based in Austria.
The sale starts Wednesday and runs through September 16th. This is done in time for Constitution Day and Justice Ginsburg’s second anniversary.
Ginsburg served as a deputy justice of the Supreme Court from 1993 until his death in 2020 at the age of 87. She was her second woman to sit on the Supreme Court.
The highlight of the sale will be the first public appearance of two of Ginsburg’s trademark collars. Many of her collars, styled in her judicial robes, have been donated to major museums, Bonhams said.
The layered white collar was given to Ginsberg in 2018 by a former clerk and is embroidered with the words of her late husband, Marty Ginsberg. “It’s not a sacrifice, it’s a family.” Another is a beaded brocade. These are expected to sell between her $3,000 and her $5,000 each.
James Ginsburg, son of Judge Ginsburg, said: “My mother created the New York Times style column and People magazine’s ‘worst-dressed’ list in the same year, the latter calling her a ‘fashion crime’. I accused him of being,” he said. “Her clothing choices may have caused controversy in some circles, but it’s great to see the breadth of her ideals and reasoning and how much she is loved and appreciated. That’s it.
Copy of the Ginsburg family Infamous RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburgestimated at US$200-300.
Courtesy of Bonhams
A wooden gavel from Ginsburg’s room is also for sale. It was used most recently at the 2nd Circuit Court Conference in Saratoga Springs, New York.
The collection also includes items such as lace gloves, shawls, books, photographs, and posters that give glimpses into Ginsberg’s personal life outside the courtroom.
Proceeds from the sale helped launch the RBG endowment fund by SOS Children’s Villages, and Ginsberg donated a portion of the $1 million from the 2019 Bergruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture.
The Fund will distribute 5.5% of the Fund each year to programs in the SOS Children’s Village Portfolio. Ginsburg’s daughter-in-law, composer Patrice Michaels, is a member of the Advisory Board of SOS Children’s Village USA.
Earlier this year, Bonhams held an auction for Ginsburg’s private library of over 1,000 books. The sale brought in a record number of bidders in auction house history for a total of $2.35 million.
