Anna Nicole Smith's diaries auctioned for more than $500K
LOS ANGELES - Anna Nicole Smith's private thoughts written in two diaries have been sold for more than $500,000 (euro375,178) to a German businessman who planned to sell the information to media outlets, an auction house official said.
The late Playboy model's handwritten 1992 diary was sold for $282,500 (euro211,975), and her 1994 diary went for $230,000 (euro172,582) in an eBay auction Thursday, plus a 20 percent buyer's premium.
The buyer wished to remain anonymous, but planned to sell the information to various media outlets, then resell the diaries by the end of the year, said Thomas Riccio, a partner in Universal Rarities, the auction house that handled the sale.
The "soap opera value" of the diaries could be worth more than $1 million (euro750,000) alone, including the rights to publish photos of the pages, Riccio said.
Smith was found dead on February 8 in Florida. The cause of her death is under investigation.
Her 1992 diary consists of 26 entries from January to August, while the 1994 one contains about 30 pages from January to July, Riccio said. The entries show a moody and complicated woman, he said.
Among the entries was Smith discussing her husband, elderly Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married in 1994 and who died the next year.
"It was a okay day," she wrote of June 11, 1992. "I had lunch with Howard. Someone ran over my cat yesterday. I was real sad."
In a 1994 entry, she wrote about his illness. "My husbands very weak. Theres nothing I can do," she wrote. "I want each hour to comfort him with medicines and prayers."
The diaries were offered by a group of investors who bought them from a Los Angeles memorabilia shop owner, who bought them cheaply several years ago when Smith discarded them, Riccio said.
