Leland Little Auctions sold about 2,500 lots of goods at a forced bankruptcy sale to satisfy the bankruptcy trustee for NOAA LIVING. The retail value was said to be about $7.5 million. Value received was just under $1 million.
Although I have shown a range of examples, my overall impression of the sale is that red Indo Persians sold for less than $5 per square foot in LIQUIDATION. Prices in liquidation have no bearing on prices in the real world. Some months ago a merchant told me that the rug liquidation price was $1,000 or less. This auction confirms his comments.
Virtually All Lots Sold
In talking with the principal, Leland Little, he reported that virtually all the goods sold, and I couldn’t find one that didn’t. There was a lot of duplication of designs in the 997 lots of rugs, not including 119 lots of textiles.
$300 – $1000 Range
Except for NOAA Living’s own designs, which went higher, there were very few lots over $1,000. Scatters seemed to go for less than $300. Oversized rugs were cheap.
Lot 700, early in the sale, an Indo Ikat with a unique design for the sale sold for $2,400 ($23 per square foot liquidation) for an 8-11 by 11-8. Notably the retail price tag read $8752.44 ($84 per square foot retail.
Lot 2581 at the end of the sale, a slightly off-center medallion Indo Serapi (8×9-11) sold for $550 ($6.43 per square foot).
Lot 1576 Indo Oushak (8/8) which is an oversized rug (where the real bargains were) (11-10 x 21-2) sold for $600 ($2.40 per square foot).
Lot 1695 in the middle of the sale, and a NOA LIVING design (Made in Tibet of Himalayan wool and real silk in six qualities) design Vertigo, an 8×10 sold at liquidation for $1,100 ($13.75 per square foot).
Lot 1562 Off-center medallion red Indo-Persian 9-6 x 13-6 sold in liquidation at $450 ($3.50 per square foot).
Lot 1757 Contemporary design 8-10 x 12 sold for $850 ($8 per square foot).
I think the Leland Little company did a great job in producing the auction. The pictures were excellent. There were three or four pictures for each rug. Leland Little credited his catalog team with great work in putting together a catalog of 2,500 items and the photography team of producing so many images and in Hi Resolution which we love. The marketing team found enough potential customers outside their Raleigh Durham locale that there was not significant fall-off towards the end of the auction.
You can see prices realized for room sized rugs at the NOA Living Liquidation sale conducted by Leland Little Auctions at:
https://www.lelandlittle.com/l/listing/auction/705/category/oriental-rugs-room-size-rugs/
