g.colton, a brand & shop in Los Angeles, does a project it calls Guest Buyers Series. They ask people who inspire them to go out and buy cool stuff on g.Coltpn's dime. They document
the purchases and half the proceeds go to a charity when the items sell. In this case, they asked Objects USA to do the shopping and the Museum of California Design is the charity. Check it our here Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. David Stewart Ceramic Bowls
Ross Bellah died in 2004. At 97, he lived a full life.In 2009, there was an estate sale held at his North Hollywood home (the one he designed with Anderson). The sale was advertised on Craigslist. I purchased the lamps I have (pictured above) on eBay from someone who bought them at the estate sale. A few pieces were also sold through LAMA, and it appears they ended up were they started- at MoMA. People get old, get sick and eventually we all die. The stuff has to go somewhere, so estate sales are just a fact of life. However, it turns out that this estate sale was conducted by a real scum bag.
Although Ross died in 2004, his widow Eunice Bellah was still alive in 2009. Her possessions and house were being sold without her consent by a crooked CPA while Eunice was ill. The court appointed CPA and a team of rip off lawyers drained her bank account and sold off all her assets. This sort of thing happens a lot. In fact, in 2011, Teresa Laggner, conservator of the Greta Grossman estate, was sentenced to 18 months for ripping off her clients.
I'm sure the people who bought the Bellah pieces at the estate sale, that were eventually sold at LAMA and through eBay, had no idea about this back story. The Bellah house was demolished shortly after the estate sale and the conservator fled the country with $866K of Eunice's money. Eunice died in 2012. Read more about this horribly sad story, here.
