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Liz Taylor Puts Life in Christie's Hands

Wed., Sep. 20, 2006 2:00 PM PDT by Sarah Hall

Elizabeth Taylor apparently lives by the adage, "You can't take it with you."

Though she has denied being anywhere near her deathbed, the Hollywood legend nonetheless has a game plan in place when it comes to divesting herself of her storied collection of belongings.

Taylor, 74, announced that she has made an agreement with Christie's giving the venerable auction house exclusive rights to sell off her jewelry, artwork, clothing, furniture and other possessions in auctions that will take place both before and after her death.

"When the items I've collected are cared for by other people I hope they will be loved and respected in a sharing way," Taylor said in a statement Wednesday. "Eventually, they will be passed on to others. But not too soon!"

The auction house has sold some of the actress' possessions in the past, including the dress she wore to the 1969 Oscars, which was purchased for $150,000 in 1999. The proceeds went to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research, of which Taylor is the international founding chairman.

In 2002, Christie's auctioned nine pieces of jewelry donated by Taylor for the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, which she established in 1991. One of the pieces was an emerald and diamond ring that was a gift from her fifth husband, Richard Burton, whom she has described as one of her two favorite husbands.

"Christie's is a most honorable firm," Taylor said Wednesday. "I have enjoyed their integrity and commitment to excellence for many years."

The deal "marks a fantastic continuation of our many years of work with this stunning film legend, humanitarian and designer," Christie's Americas Chairman Stephen Lash said in a joint statement with the two-time Oscar winner.

Though Taylor has been struggling with health problems in recent years, she appeared on Larry King Live in May to emphatically deny tabloid reports that she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

"Oh, come on, do I look like I'm dying?" she said on the CNN show. "Do I look like or sound like I have Alzheimer's?"

Proving her point, Taylor traveled to Hawaii in August, where she took part in a shark-spotting excursion, despite being confined to a wheelchair due to a bad back.

"I did get into the shark cage," Taylor wrote New York Post columnist Liz Smith in a postcard. "It was the most exciting thing I've done in my life--there were 12 sharks cruising the cage.

From the sounds of it, she'll be around to enjoy her possessions for some time to come.