
A home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Kansas City neighborhood of Roanoke Park recently sold for $920,000 after being on the market for eleven months, according to the Kansas City Star. It was originally listed for $1.65 million. The anonymous Nebraska buyer bought the house at auction. “I can say this,” said Eric Bradley, a spokesman for Heritage Auctions . “I can say the winning bidder realizes the gem he just purchased, and I think the residents of Kansas City are going to be very pleased with what the bidder plans to do with the home. He plans to keep it a national or regional destination, and, like Frank Lloyd Wright said himself, he intends to keep it as a gem for Kansas City.”
The home, at 3600 Belleview Ave., had been on the market for 11 months at $1.65 million. At the 2 p.m. auction, bidding began at $450,000, Bradley said. Bids quickly soared to $775,000 with the Nebraska bidder on the phone going head-to-head with a local bidder who was represented by a Realtor at the auction, in the home’s living room. The winner wanted to remain anonymous for the time being. The auction house receives a 10 percent fee, bringing the total purchase price $1,012,000, far below the original asking price.
A number of potential buyers flew into Kansas City over the weekend, Bradley said, to assess the home for possible purchase. At least 10 serious bidders preregistered for the auction. A number of others were turned away from the home because they had failed to register prior to the 2 p.m. deadline. Auction agents staffed three telephones inside the home to take remote bids. The auction took less than 40 minutes.
“Buildings of this caliber should be considered in the same class as a Picasso or Renoir painting, or a Calder or Giacometti sculpture,” architecture critic Alan Hess, a California author of four books on Wright, told The Star in the days prior to the auction. “They can certainly be appreciated and add to the quality of life of the owner and the public in the same way as a piece of fine art.”
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