Joan Didion’s old things went up for auction this week, and I’d love to say I had no interest in owning them. I’d love to say I hadn’t even bothered to peek at the online catalogue for “An American Icon: Property From the Collection of Joan Didion”, the estate sale held by Stair Galleries. But, like a teenage fangirl drawn to the literary flame, I pored over the descriptions of all 224 lots. There’s God hidden among the minutiae.
I didn’t bid on anything from Didion’s Manhattan apartment – the prices were shocking. A photo of the author in her Corvette Stingray sold for $26,000 (£22,000) on Wednesday. A pair of Celine faux tortoise shell sunnies – not even the black pair she wore in a 2015 campaign for the brand – cost their new owner $27,000.
