Phillips Withdraws Steve McQueen's Rolex Submariner From Auction Amid Conflict With The ...

The saga of Steve McQueen's Rolex Submariner has another Hollywood-worthy plot twist-Phillips has withdrawn the watch from its December 5 auction due to a dispute with the McQueen estate "We have no reason to believe that Steve McQueen ever purchased that Rolex watch," says McQueen estate attorney Arthur Barens, adding, without offering any proof, "It may be a copy." "We've made it clear from day one that Steve McQueen would not have written that inscription nor would he have the watch inscribed with that sentiment," says Arthur Barens, attorney for the estate When pressed about whether he was disputing more than the authenticity of the inscription, Barens was adamant: "We have no reason to believe that Steve McQueen ever purchased that Rolex watch," adding, without offering any proof, "It may be a copy-as we all know, there is a whole history of counterfeit Rolex watches" Originally dubious about the time line laid out by Phillips-the auction house asserted that McQueen had purchased the watch in the late '60s, wore it himself and then gave the watch to Janes in the early '70s-Ehrlich discovered that Phillips did in fact have it wrong, casting doubt on whether McQueen ever wore the watch himself.

In a statement to Forbes, Phillips explained its reasons for withdrawing the watch from the auction: "Despite numerous attempts to engage in the discussions with the McQueen family, making it clear that Phillips was committed to offering the watch with the corrected provenance information, the family remains unsupportive of the sale Phillips hoped the sale of this watch would celebrate the lives of two men, but without the support of the McQueen family, we are unable to proceed." Adding to the mystery of why the McQueen family is objecting to the auction is that they disputed a fact from the original Forbes story on the auction-that "Boys Republic, a charity McQueen cared deeply about, will receive a portion of the auction sale." Eisenberg and Phillips confirmed that he had promised to donate one-third of the proceeds to Boys Republic and one-third to Erika Janes. . Source