Hotel Chelsea’s iconic neon sign headed to auction
Image via WikiCommons
Here’s a chance to own an iconic part of New York City. The original neon letters from the Hotel Chelsea will be coming to auction this month as part of Guernsey’s “Downtown Auction,” celebrating the culture of downtown Manhattan over the last 60 years. Before its first sale in 2011, the hotel at 222 West 23rd Street was known for its celebrity and creative-minded residents, like Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol, Madonna, and many others.
The Hotel Chelsea’s sign, to be auctioned through Guernsey’s by Arlan Ettinger, is an illuminating symbol of Downtown Manhattan’s creative and free-spirited nature during the 1960s and 70s.
The auction will be hosted online on September 25 with a preview exhibition taking place at the Chelsea Hotel on September 23 and 25.
The sign will be sold letter by letter, followed by the word “Chelsea.” The sign has two sides, so there are two sets of letters and two “Chelseas.” Each letter in “hotel” is roughly five feet tall, while the word “Chelsea” measures 93 inches wide and a little under four feet tall, according to the New York Times. The starting price for the Chelsea sign is $20,000; each letter will start with a bid of $2,500.
“That sign beckoned to the world that this was a place of free thought, creative goings-on, a raucous lifestyle,” Ettinger told the Times. “When you said ‘the Chelsea,’ you had these visions of Warhol and Arthur Miller and Bob Dylan, all hanging out.”
Thomas Rinaldi, author of “New York Neon,” told the Times that the sign on auction was installed in 1949 and was at least the third illuminated sign at the hotel. Earlier signs were illuminated by incandescent lightbulbs.
The sale of artifacts is the second auction of items from the Chelsea in recent years. In 2018, Ettinger and Guernsey’s sold doors to some hotel rooms, including Room 126, where Iggy Pop and Bette Davis stayed at different periods.
In addition to the sign, Ettinger is selling roughly 20 stained-glass windows removed from the hotel when it was renovated.
Also on sale is memorabilia of downtown Manhattan from the 1970s and 80s, including a drum set played by Madonna at CBGB’s when she was part of the band Breakfast Club, and portraits by Jean-Michel Basquiat of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.
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