Omro – John L. Freund, 94, of Omro, passed away peacefully with family by his side, on October 13, 2021 at Evergreen Retirement Community. He resided at Arborview Manor until recently. John was born on the family farm in Omro on January 19, 1927. He was the youngest child of John J. and Rose B. (Schrage) Freund.
John graduated from Omro High School in 1944 and Oshkosh State Teachers College in 1949. He married his high school sweetheart, Lucille J. Neary, on December 1, 1945, at St. Thomas Catholic Church in the town of Poygan. John and Lucille worked together, loaded up the family car and traveled together, and enjoyed activities and time spent with friends and their families. Lucille preceded him in death on September 17, 1992.
John was a life-long member of St. Mary Catholic Church in Omro, serving as a lector, usher, and parish council member.
John joined his eldest brother, Ernie, to begin his passionate lifetime career in real estate and auctioneering, which also later included insurance sales. Freund auctions were well known and were a weekend family event in the Omro/Oshkosh areas. The family always enjoyed closing out an auction with dinner, old fashioneds, and fun. John was a founding member of the Wisconsin Auctioneers Association. He served as its president in 1973 and 1974 and was named 1980 Outstanding Auctioneer of the Year.
John was an active community member. He served on the Omro Board of Education. He was a charter member of the Omro Kiwanis, actively serving that organization for over 50 years. John served as a Director of Winnebago County Bank for over 25 years. He was a member and past president of the local Board of Realtors and was Realtor of the Year in 1965. He was a member of the National Association of Farm and Land Brokers. John was also a member of the Omro Jaycees and Oshkosh Elks.
John enjoyed many years of bowling and golf leagues. He also enjoyed deer hunting and was a proud member of the Sawyer Swampers Hunt Club. John enjoyed many winters vacationing in Florida. He especially enjoyed fishing there with his Omro friends, fish fry’s, and socializing. It was never determined if it was John or his friend, Judd, who caught the biggest bass.
John is survived by his daughter, Janet Abalan, and son, Michael (Mona) Freund; grandchildren Kathryn Freund (Roger Baron) and Kristin (Andy) Duda, and their mother, Mary Morelli, Ryan (Kimberly) Abalan and John Abalan, Lauren Price and Andrew Freund; great-grandchildren Nicholas and Owen Duda, Lucy and Claire Abalan, and Lily and Trenton Price.
In addition to his wife and parents, John was preceded in death by his son Robert; siblings Ernest Freund, Naomi Ziebell, Adell Lesniak, Alyce Freund, Alvin Freund, and Frances Blount; and infant grandchild Meghan Abalan.
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History of Auctioneering
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The most expensive artwork by a living artist sold at auction is Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit”, which sold for $91,075,000 (£70,408,300; €81,145,400), including buyer’s premium, and was sold by Christie’s in New York, USA, on 15 May 2019.
Created in 1986, it is one of the most iconic pieces ever created by Jeff Koons. One of three, it is the last remaining sculpture in the series to be in a private collection. The other two are located in The Broad Art Foundation in Los Angeles, USA and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, USA.
According to reports, the Art dealer Robert Mnuchin, made the final bid for a client. This isn’t the first time one of Jeff Koons’ sculptures has held the record. In 2013, Jeff Koons’ “Balloon Dog (Orange)” – a 12-foot-high, orange-tinted, stainless steel sculpture resembling a dog made from balloons – was sold at Christie’s for $58.4 million (£36.49 million).
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The most expensive sculpture by a living artist sold at auction is Jeff Koons’ “Rabbit”, which sold for $91,075,000 (£70,408,300; €81,145,400), including buyer’s premium, and was sold by Christie’s in New York, USA, on 15 May 2019.
Created in 1986, it is one of the most iconic pieces ever created by Jeff Koons. One of three, it is the last remaining sculpture in the series to be in a private collection. The other two are located in The Broad Art Foundation in Los Angeles, USA and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, USA.
According to reports, the Art dealer Robert Mnuchin, made the final bid for a client. This isn’t the first time one of Jeff Koons’ sculptures has held the record. In 2013, Jeff Koons’ “Balloon Dog (Orange)” – a 12-foot-high, orange-tinted, stainless steel sculpture resembling a dog made from balloons – was sold at Christie’s for $58.4 million (£36.49 million).
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The Ohio Auctioneers Association is a non-profit organization, founded in 1942. Since that time, it has continued to grow in strength and fellowship and is an association committed to improving and promoting higher standards in the auction profession.
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The most valuable Christmas card in the world was sold at auction in Devizes, Wiltshire, UK on 24 November 2001 for £20,000 ($28,158) and bought by an anonymous bidder. Measuring 13 x 8 cm (5 x 3 in) it was sent by Sir Henry Cole, a Bath-born businessman to his grandmother in 1843 and is hand-coloured by the London illustrator John Calcott Horsley.
The Christmas card is also considered the world’s first Christmas card. A total 1,000 were lithographed and sold at a shilling each. The card shows a Christmas dinner with three generations of a family enjoying a Christmas party. The side panels show charitable scenes with people clothing and feeding the poor. There are only 12 of the original 1,000 cards still in existance. At one shilling each, an average man’s weekly wage, they were only bought by the wealthier classes.
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A pair of flesh coloured foam and cotton bra pads once belonging to Marilyn Monroe, sold at auction for $5,000 (£;3,149) in Bedford, New Hampshire, USA on 15 April 2000.
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An original pair of Levi Strauss & Co (USA) 501 jeans aged over 115 years old were sold by Randy Knight (USA) to an anonymous collector (Japan) for $60,000,00 (£33,230) through internet auction site eBay on 15 June 2005. There are said to be only two or three complete pairs of authentic pre-1900 Levi’s 501 jeans in existence and these are the first pair found that is still wearable. This particular pair of jeans was found by four friends in an abandoned-silver mine in the Mojave Desert, California, USA in 1998. They feature the distinctive Levi’s Arcuate stitching on the back of one pocket, the two horse leather patch (still intact), a watch pocket, a button fly and copper rivets. When found, the jeans had never been washed and it is thought that the slurry and mud from the mine helped with their preservation. They have since been washed and wrapped in unbleached muslin material to store them.
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The record for the most expensive jigsaw puzzle sold for a charitable art auction to benefit a non-profit organization The Golden Retriever Foundation at a bid of $27.000 (£14.589). The hand-crafted wooden jigsaw puzzle was custom made by Rachel Page Elliott (USA). The charity event was held at the Eisenhower Conference Centre, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA on 28 September 2005. At the time, Rachel Page Elliot was 92 years old. She has lectured around the world, and just updated her world-renown book and video on canine anatomical structure and movement. In puzzle circles, she has received national awards from her fellow puzzlers and is renowned for her detailed craftsmanship. The puzzle consist of 467 interlocking pieces, many cut in her unique designs of birds, cats, horses, and, of course, Golden Retrievers in various poses. It features a signed print entitled “The Outing” depicting a Golden Retriever female and five puppies playing in the grass. (A photo is available upon request).
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On 13 December 2007, one of seven limited-edition handwritten copies of a manuscript entitled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, by Harry Potter author J K Rowling (UK), sold for £1.95 million ($3.97 million; including buyer’s premium) at Sotheby’s auction house in London, UK. The book was purchased by online retailer Amazon.com, Inc. (USA).
The lot was originally predicted to make in the region of £30,000 to 50,000 ($60,000 to $100,000).
The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a collection of children’s stories which is referenced in the final book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.
The limited-edition books, about 160 pages long, were bound in brown moroccan leather with silver decoration and moonstones mounted on the covers.
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The most expensive painting of a merperson sold at auction is John William Waterhouse’s The Siren, which fetched £3,835,800 ($5.08 m), including buyer’s premium, at Sotheby’s in London, UK, on 12 July 2018. More than doubling its £1–1.5 million estimate, it was purchased by an anonymous buyer and is currently in a private collection.
The Siren was sold as part of a wider sale of “Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art”. Painted in oil on a canvas measuring 81 x 53 cm (32 x 21 inches), the painting depicts a shipwrecked sailor clinging to a rock with his left hand. A beautiful woman sits higher up on the rock watching him. She is naked with pale white skin and long auburn hair. Below her knees the sea spray has transformed her legs into fish scales and fins. She holds a lyre made from an abalone shell, identifying her as one of the legendary sirens who lure sailors to their death through song.
The painting appears to have been completed in 1900 and first sold for £450 in London on Waterhouse’s behalf by Thomas Agnew & Sons (1 February 1901). It was purchased by James Gresham (1836–1914) of Woodheys Park in Ashton-on-Mersey. Upon Gresham’s death in 1914, his executors sold the painting at Christies (12 July 1917), where it was purchased by William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, who placed it in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. On 6 June 1958 the Lady Lever Art Gallery sold it at Christies, where it was purchased by an individual named ‘Goldschmidt’. It appeared on the market again in 1970 at D’Offay-Couper Gallery, London, where it sold to one M Bertonati. Sotheby’s sold the painting to Seymour Stein, an American entrepreneur and record producer, on 26 November 1985.
Before the 2018 auction, The Siren was included in Sotheby’s sale “The Collecting Eye of Seymour Stein” on 11 December 2003 in New York City, USA, but did not sell.
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