Christie’s to Auction Van Cliburn Estate Items

FORT WORTH (AP/Staff) � Hundreds of items from the estate of the celebrated Kilgore-raised pianist Van Cliburn are scheduled to go up for auction next month. The New York auction house Christie’s has scheduled a March 4-5 auction of the Van Cliburn collection. The items were left behind in Cliburn’s Fort Worth-area mansion when he died a year ago this month. It’ll be the second auction of items from the Cliburn collection. Bidders bid more than $ million for 166 lots of antiques, jewelry and other items in May 2012. Among the items available in this latest bidding is a 144-year-old piano bought by Cliburn’s mother, Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, in the 1940s and given to her son.