Speaker 1: I'm Jason Kelly. It's time for another feature in this
Speaker 1: week's edition. In two thousand three, while Nelson Mandela was
Speaker 1: still alive, several gold castings were made of the South
Speaker 1: African icons hands. They were meant to be symbolic show pieces. However,
Speaker 1: he soon regretted his participation in the project and most
Speaker 1: of the hands were destroyed. Most enter Malcolm Duncan, an
Speaker 1: entrepreneurial art collector, who managed to find the four remaining
Speaker 1: works and assemble them as a set, which he valued
Speaker 1: in the millions. Despite their uniqueness and providence. For years,
Speaker 1: he struggled to find a buyer. Finally, in March, Duncan
Speaker 1: settled on auctioning them off in Manhattan. It's hard to
Speaker 1: believe this story could get more interesting, what with gold
Speaker 1: reaching an all time high and all, but that auction
Speaker 1: just days before New York City's lockdown is right when
Speaker 1: things would take yet another turn in a time of transformation.
Speaker 1: Ul knows that trust is necessary for innovation and business success.
Speaker 1: We use science and data driven insights to help you
Speaker 1: build the trust stakeholders manned. The future relies on trust,
Speaker 1: and you ll empowers it. Learn more in access free
Speaker 1: research at Uel dot com slash trust Hands of a God.
Speaker 1: How a gold casting of Nelson Mandela's hands became an
Speaker 1: art world albatross by Danielle but Cove. In May two
Speaker 1: thousand three, Nelson Mandela, former South African President, winner of
Speaker 1: the Nobel Peace Prize and hero to millions, sat down
Speaker 1: at the dinner table of his house in Johannesburg and
Speaker 1: laid his right hand, palm side down into a lump
Speaker 1: of cold dental putty. A team of technicians from the
Speaker 1: precision casting division of Harmony Gold Mining was present to supervise,
Speaker 1: and Mandela chatted amiably with them as they worked, pausing
Speaker 1: to sip coffee with his free hand. The silicon based
Speaker 1: putty had been chilled to make it harden more slowly,
Speaker 1: but the men had only six minutes of malleability to
Speaker 1: work with time they used to get the material into
Speaker 1: every wrinkle increase almost perfectly, capt shuring Mendela's fingerprints as
Speaker 1: well as the scars from his hard labor on Robin Island.
Speaker 1: Then they poured more on top to encase his knuckles
Speaker 1: and fingernails. Harmony would use the molds from that day
Speaker 1: to create resin replicas. Then a casting of Mandela's hand
Speaker 1: in ninety nine pure gold. This prototype was to be
Speaker 1: the first in a series at least twenty seven gold
Speaker 1: hands weighing five point seven pounds to eight point eight
Speaker 1: pounds each to mark the years of his imprisonment, followed
Speaker 1: by silver versions for each month, and finally thousands of
Speaker 1: bronze copies to mark each day. They would be sold
Speaker 1: to raise money for the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, the
Speaker 1: charity to which he devoted much of his time in retirement,
Speaker 1: and serve as advertisements for harmonies casting expertise in the process.
Speaker 1: Throughout the making of the moldings, Mandela was amazingly helpful,
Speaker 1: patient and funny, and he kept everyone entertained with stories.
Speaker 1: According to an account in the company newspaperman Ize, that
Speaker 1: may well have been the happiest that Mandela ever felt
Speaker 1: about the project. Not long after the castings were made,
Speaker 1: he became concerned that too many people were profiting from
Speaker 1: Mandela Art, a cottage industry that included selling sketches he'd
Speaker 1: purportedly drawn and putting his face on dishes, teapots, and
Speaker 1: commemorative chokes. After Mandela dispatched a team of lawyers to
Speaker 1: shut down, the trade harmony stopped producing hands, leaving only
Speaker 1: a tiny initial badge. The project was largely forgotten, except
Speaker 1: that is, by Malcolm Duncan, then a forty seven year
Speaker 1: old auto parts entrepreneur. Duncan had met Mandela a few
Speaker 1: years before during an event at a cancer clinic in
Speaker 1: the township of Soweto. Like many who came face to
Speaker 1: face with the legend, Duncan was overcome. I couldn't talk
Speaker 1: because he was so humble, he recalls, I had such
Speaker 1: a lump in my throat. When Duncan learned about the hands,
Speaker 1: he had to have them. Not long after the castings,
Speaker 1: he managed to buy four gold examples. He'd wanted two more,
Speaker 1: but couldn't get them before the project was shut down.
Speaker 1: Duncan says he intended to make the hands the centerpiece
Speaker 1: of a collection of Mandela memorabilia, both for personal inspiration
Speaker 1: and to show to friends and family. He described them
Speaker 1: as objects of reverence, near supernatural totems of Mandela's legacy,
Speaker 1: like secular versions of the supposed saintly relics that inspired
Speaker 1: pilgrimages in medieval Europe. The castings were the closest thing
Speaker 1: to a literal piece of South Africa's post apartheid hero.
Speaker 1: Not unrelatedly, Duncan also figured they'd make a good investment.
Speaker 1: None of that came to be. Instead, the castings became
Speaker 1: Duncan's proudest possessions, but also a source of enduring distress,
Speaker 1: an almost too neat illustration of the perils of getting
Speaker 1: what you wish for and of the uncomfortable questions that
Speaker 1: arise when veneration meets commercial gain. I've been to hell
Speaker 1: and back with these hands, he says, to hell and back. Duncan,
Speaker 1: who has silver hair, thick black eyebrows, and a face
Speaker 1: that frequently breaks into an animated puppyish grin, spent most
Speaker 1: of his childhood in Pingae, a remote village where his
Speaker 1: father was an electrical engineer at an asbestos mine. He
Speaker 1: completed his military service mandatory in those days for white
Speaker 1: South Africans in nineteen seventy seven, entering the workforce as
Speaker 1: the apartheid system was beginning to buckle under the weight
Speaker 1: of internal protest and economic isolation. It was also a
Speaker 1: time of rising international interest in African culture, a trend
Speaker 1: whose commercial potential wasn't lost on Duncan. In nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: the same year Paul Simon released Graceland, Duncan flew to
Speaker 1: Miami with a suitcase full of masks, soapstone carvings, and
Speaker 1: wooden jewelry sourced from roadside vendors. Finding buyers was initially
Speaker 1: slow going. After weeks driving from state to state, he
Speaker 1: pulled into Los Angeles with only forty three dollars to
Speaker 1: his name, But Angel Leno's proved receptive to what he
Speaker 1: was selling, and within a week Duncan had unloaded all
Speaker 1: his items. He returned to South Africa with four thousand
Speaker 1: dollars in profit, hardly a fortune, but enough to help
Speaker 1: him get started. He ended up selling running boards for cars,
Speaker 1: importing them from a company in Indiana before setting up
Speaker 1: his own factory. Duncan's admiration for Mandela was late blooming.
Speaker 1: Like many whites of his generation, he had been raised
Speaker 1: to view the African National Congress, the resistance movement and
Speaker 1: political party in which Mandela was a senior leader, as
Speaker 1: something like a terrorist organization, the opinion of the apartheid government,
Speaker 1: which convicted Mandela of sabotage in the infamous Ravonia trial
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four, but his grace when he was
Speaker 1: released from prison. In pursuing reconciliation with his persecutors and
Speaker 1: laying the groundwork for a multi ethnic democracy changed to
Speaker 1: Duncan's views, and by the time Mandela became president, he
Speaker 1: was a convert. When he happened to meet a bus
Speaker 1: driver who knew men Della's private secretary, it seemed like fate.
Speaker 1: Duncan got to know the secretary and negotiated with her
Speaker 1: to help fund the Sweto Clinic, which Mandela was also supporting,
Speaker 1: giving him the chance to meet his hero. Duncan wasn't
Speaker 1: in attendance when the prototype hand went up for auction
Speaker 1: in June two thousand three. The sale went well, with
Speaker 1: an unidentified private buyer paying four hundred and twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand Rand then about forty six thousand dollars. Duncan made
Speaker 1: his move a few months later. The four hands he
Speaker 1: bought included a clenched fist symbolic of nineteen sixty four,
Speaker 1: and a three part set corresponding to nine, consisting of
Speaker 1: another fist, an outstretched hand, and a palm imprint. Unlike
Speaker 1: the prototype, they were hollow, like chocolate easter bunnies to
Speaker 1: prevent excess weight from deforming their shape over time. Half
Speaker 1: the two point seven million rand that he says he
Speaker 1: paid was to be donated via harmony to the Children's Fund,
Speaker 1: a condition that Duncan says won him Mandela's blessing. The
Speaker 1: Children's Fund didn't respond to requests for comment, while the
Speaker 1: Nelson Mandela Foundation, which functions as the primary custodian of
Speaker 1: Mandela's legacy, didn't provide one. Before the deadline for this story,
Speaker 1: Duncan secured the hands in a bank vault, figuring he'd
Speaker 1: decide later how to display them, but attitudes about objects
Speaker 1: honoring the former president soon changed dramatically. In two thousand five,
Speaker 1: Mandela filed a suit against his former lawyer, Ismael Ayob
Speaker 1: and Ross Calder, a publisher who'd worked with Ayob on
Speaker 1: what buyers assumed was officially sanctioned Mandela art, accusing them
Speaker 1: of exploiting his image. Mandela was eighty six at the time,
Speaker 1: and the implication of the suit was clear that the
Speaker 1: pair had been taking advantage of an increasingly frail legend.
Speaker 1: Later that same year, Mandela expanded his legal fight, going
Speaker 1: after dozens of companies selling similar paraphernalia. The legal action
Speaker 1: against Ayob and Calder was never concluded. Both denied wrongdoing.
Speaker 1: The market for Mandela Art collapsed. For Duncan. This presented
Speaker 1: a problem. Not long after buying the Hands, he decided
Speaker 1: to relocate to Canada, spurred by a home invasion in
Speaker 1: which his eleven year old son was held at gunpoint.
Speaker 1: He needed capital to set up an autoparts company there,
Speaker 1: and selling the Hands seemed like an obvious way to
Speaker 1: obtain it. But the controversies around Mandela Art meant buyers
Speaker 1: were scarce, and any one willing to contemplate a purchase
Speaker 1: wanted proof that Mandela had authorized their casting and sailed
Speaker 1: to Duncan, Assurances, in other words, that he wasn't just
Speaker 1: another profit here. Duncan couldn't offer any. He had no
Speaker 1: formal ownership papers, only metal plates that Harmony supplied and
Speaker 1: called or signed. He had no way to get in
Speaker 1: touch with the ailing Mandela to clear things up, nor
Speaker 1: could he prove the Hands were among only a few
Speaker 1: in existence. In twenty fifteen, he thought he was near
Speaker 1: a sale to a Saudie family he says was willing
Speaker 1: to pay twenty seven million dollars, only to have it
Speaker 1: fall apart. When he couldn't produce the necessary paperwork. With
Speaker 1: no buyer willing to write a check, Duncan was increasingly
Speaker 1: fearful that someone would steal the hands. At one point
Speaker 1: he painted them black. I thought, if nobody knows their gold,
Speaker 1: who's going to steal a hand, he says, and buried
Speaker 1: them under his garage in Calgary. It took Duncan years
Speaker 1: to establish the Hands providence to the standards expected by
Speaker 1: the international art market, just in time for a boom
Speaker 1: in a commodity that arguably has even less real world
Speaker 1: utility than gold. In eighteen he met Len Schutzman, a
Speaker 1: former PepsiCo executive who was running a cryptocurrency start up
Speaker 1: in Waterloo, Ontario, the home of the BlackBerry. The company, Arbitrade,
Speaker 1: had an unconventional pitch for investors. It would back every
Speaker 1: virtual coin it mented with physical gold. When Shutzman learned
Speaker 1: about the Hands, he made duncan an offer ten million
Speaker 1: dollars for all four. The shiny appendages, Shutzman said would
Speaker 1: become the centerpiece of an arbitrated promotional tour and symbols
Speaker 1: of the gold backed stability. The company offered a longer
Speaker 1: run plan of questionable taste, even by crypto world standards,
Speaker 1: would see the hands back a Mandela themed digital currency.
Speaker 1: Duncan loved the idea of putting the hands on tour.
Speaker 1: He wanted them to be seen providing the same inspiration
Speaker 1: to others that he'd drawn from them over the years,
Speaker 1: but he didn't have a way to display them to
Speaker 1: the public himself, and Arbitrde seemed to be good for
Speaker 1: the money, paying about five point eight million dollars according
Speaker 1: to legal filings, to take possession of two hands and
Speaker 1: pay for part of a third. The others would follow
Speaker 1: once the balance was settled, but Arbitratee's dream of uniting
Speaker 1: crypto enthusiasts and gold bugs was not to be and
Speaker 1: the company ran into trouble in the hands Arbitratee had
Speaker 1: paid for went to one of its backers. Duncan was dejected.
Speaker 1: As an esthetic manner, he had always thought the four
Speaker 1: hands should be displayed as a set. From a financial perspective,
Speaker 1: he was all so certain they'd have more value sold altogether,
Speaker 1: but there seemed to be no way that would happen.
Speaker 1: And then he got a call from Arlen Ettinger, Guernsey's
Speaker 1: The New York Auction house Anger, founded with his wife
Speaker 1: Barbara mintz In, has many of the trappings of the
Speaker 1: high end art market, an upper East side address, a
Speaker 1: rolodex of deep pocketed buyers, and a lengthy catalog of
Speaker 1: prior sales, but it's a rather different animal than Sotheby's
Speaker 1: or Christie's. Instead of Picassos and Monai's, Guernsey's specializes in memorabilia,
Speaker 1: with past auctions for items such as Jerry Garcia's guitar,
Speaker 1: a Rolls Royce driven by Elizabeth Taylor, and, on one
Speaker 1: unusual occasion, a house owned by Rosa Parks, originally on
Speaker 1: a lot in Detroit. An artist had restored and disassembled it.
Speaker 1: Ettinger says he heard about the hands from a lawyer
Speaker 1: involved with arbitrade and thought they were perfect for Guernseys,
Speaker 1: especially if they could be reunited as a group. Duncan
Speaker 1: was supportive of the ida, so, he says, was the
Speaker 1: person who had taken the other hands, an investor in
Speaker 1: Utah named Max Barber. Barber didn't respond to requests for comment.
Speaker 1: Early this year, Guernsey's booked a room for the auction
Speaker 1: at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, and Duncan
Speaker 1: flew up from Austin, where he now lives with his wife, Jackie.
Speaker 1: Ettinger informed him there were already two potential buyers. The auction,
Speaker 1: Duncan told me shortly before it began could be a
Speaker 1: quick one. Ettinger revealed the hands to the public on
Speaker 1: March first, the day before they would go on the block.
Speaker 1: In person, they were marvels. The black paint had long
Speaker 1: since been removed. Each was set in a box made
Speaker 1: from kiyot, a rare South African wood, and lit from above,
Speaker 1: shimmering under the stage lights in every imaginable shade of gold.
Speaker 1: The detail was extraordinary, capturing calluses, wrinkles, and bones with
Speaker 1: perfect clarity. But they also looked faintly creepy, like amputated
Speaker 1: souvenirs kept by a on villain, not to mention. Lonely,
Speaker 1: except for Ettinger's team and a few security guards, the
Speaker 1: room was deserted. When I asked whether he'd advertised the sale,
Speaker 1: Ettinger responded with barely disguised irritation that Guernsey's usually counts
Speaker 1: on journalists for that appoint his public relations team had
Speaker 1: made by pushing for a pre auction story that would
Speaker 1: stimulate wide global interest He also bristled when I asked
Speaker 1: if the past controversies around Mandela art or Duncan's difficulties
Speaker 1: establishing that he'd bought the hands with Mandela's blessing made
Speaker 1: him hesitant about selling them meaningful works. Attnger said, rarely
Speaker 1: made it to his auction block without some drama, whether
Speaker 1: a divorce, a soured transaction, or a family feud. Why
Speaker 1: should I focus on what transpired? As long as things
Speaker 1: aren't stolen, As long as things are what they claim
Speaker 1: to be, he continued, that's all I care about. I
Speaker 1: do not want to know the details. As the day
Speaker 1: went on, only a few people turned up to view
Speaker 1: the hands. One was g Lynn Thorpe, a lawyer and inventor.
Speaker 1: His latest project is a portable folding tray, who was
Speaker 1: representing Barber. Thorpe took a philosophical view of the objects,
Speaker 1: describing himself as honored to be involved with a piece
Speaker 1: of Mandela history, especially as a black man. When Nelson
Speaker 1: Mandela went into jail, that was just a spike in
Speaker 1: all our hearts, he said. It was a shame. He
Speaker 1: added that other historical figures hadn't cast their digits in
Speaker 1: precious metal. If Gandhi, for example, had had it done,
Speaker 1: if Jesus Christ had had it done, it would be
Speaker 1: the Holy Grail. Thorpe wasn't alone in ascribing profound meaning
Speaker 1: to the hands. Almost no public figure of the past
Speaker 1: one years attracts such unreserved adulation as Mandela, a degree
Speaker 1: of reverence usually reserved for deities or their offspring. Abby Goldman,
Speaker 1: an Upper West Side resident who stopped by the viewing
Speaker 1: towards the end of the day, couldn't make it through
Speaker 1: a sentence without choking up. I don't know why I'm crying,
Speaker 1: but it's very emotional, she said. She lifted her own
Speaker 1: hand just above the imprint of Mandela's palm, as though
Speaker 1: imagining what it would be like to touch him. He
Speaker 1: represents human rights and freedom and equality, she said. In
Speaker 1: the current political climate, it definitely resonates. Another onlooker, Brianna McLaren,
Speaker 1: had come during a break in her waitressing shift at
Speaker 1: a bar across the hall. I'm getting chills, she said
Speaker 1: when she saw the hands. Neither of them, however, was
Speaker 1: about to put down ten million dollars or more, the
Speaker 1: number Duncan hoped to get for the set. As the
Speaker 1: viewing closed, a Guernsey staffer pulled on white gloves and
Speaker 1: carefully covered each hand in bubble wrap, tearing off lengths
Speaker 1: of tape with his teeth. For some reason, he had
Speaker 1: only three black pouches, so the fourth hand was crammed
Speaker 1: into a fed X envelope and loaded with the others
Speaker 1: into a sturdy suitcase. Ettinger wheeled it away. The next morning,
Speaker 1: Duncan texted to say he was talking to a perspective
Speaker 1: buyer from the Middle East might be massive. The auction
Speaker 1: was scheduled for that evening, with the hands still available
Speaker 1: for viewing until then. As the day wore on with
Speaker 1: few people turning up, Ettinger snapped that having a reporter
Speaker 1: and photographer just sitting there was scaring off business. He
Speaker 1: later apologized, pivoting to a story about an auction in
Speaker 1: which he'd sold the entire contents of an ocean liner.
Speaker 1: At dinner in a restaurant a few floors down, Duncan
Speaker 1: seemed to be preparing himself for the possibility that the
Speaker 1: hands wouldn't sell. It might even be a blessing in disguise.
Speaker 1: He speculated, why not buy back the whole set and
Speaker 1: find a celebrity endorser to give them the prominence they deserve.
Speaker 1: You've got Bono who loves Mandela. You've got Elton John
Speaker 1: who loves Mandela? He said, why not Bill Clinton? With
Speaker 1: thirty minutes to go, the room finally started filling up.
Speaker 1: Ettinger's aids took up their positions, with two deputies at
Speaker 1: desks prepared for phone and online bids. Thorpe was back,
Speaker 1: along with an Orthodox rabbi, numerous friends and associates of Barber,
Speaker 1: and Faye Wattleton, the former president of the Planned Parenthood
Speaker 1: Federation of America, who had been helping Attinger druma buyers.
Speaker 1: I had expected that there would be greater interest in
Speaker 1: them from wealthy African Americans. I reached out to Waddleton said.
Speaker 1: She noted it was difficult to understand the hands impact
Speaker 1: without seeing them in the flesh, as it were. What
Speaker 1: would you say if somebody called you up and asked,
Speaker 1: would you give me twelve million dollars for some gold
Speaker 1: hands of Nelson Mandela. At seven forty pm, Ettinger asked
Speaker 1: everyone to take their seat. He opened at twelve million
Speaker 1: dollars for all four hands. No takers, he dropped the
Speaker 1: ask to ten million dollars, than eight million dollars, then
Speaker 1: seven point five million dollars. I'm not allowed to, nor
Speaker 1: should I go any lower than that, so I'll hold
Speaker 1: another minute silence. It was time for Plan B, selling
Speaker 1: the hands one at a time, with the nine sixty
Speaker 1: four fist the first to go. This time, Edinger started
Speaker 1: at four million dollars, quickly dropping from there three point
Speaker 1: five three, two point five two point five. One of
Speaker 1: his staff cut in to say he had a remote
Speaker 1: bid for one million dollars, but Ettinger rejected it as
Speaker 1: too low. He soon withdrew the fist, though the same
Speaker 1: anonymous bidder agreed to pay two point three million dollars
Speaker 1: for the impression of Mandela's palm. When the third hand
Speaker 1: came up, the staffer said he had a one million
Speaker 1: dollar offer from the same buyer. Trying to push up
Speaker 1: the number, Ettinger turned to another aid with a potential
Speaker 1: buyer on the line, Susan, tell your bidter there are
Speaker 1: only two hands left. I'm supposed to tell you there
Speaker 1: are only two hands left. Tell him life is short.
Speaker 1: Arlen says, life is short. No luck. That hand, too,
Speaker 1: had to be withdrawn. The fourth went to the same
Speaker 1: buyer as the second for two twenty five million dollars.
Speaker 1: The whole auction was over in fifteen minutes. In the
Speaker 1: front row, Jackie had her hand on Duncan's knee. I
Speaker 1: hope he gets what he needs, she said softly. The
Speaker 1: room began to empty out, but after a few minutes
Speaker 1: it became apparent that Ettinger wasn't finished. He was still
Speaker 1: on the phone, seemingly with the two hand buyer. Suddenly
Speaker 1: he put down the receiver to make an announcement. The
Speaker 1: buyer had agreed to take the remaining hands for a
Speaker 1: total of nine million dollars. Duncan's face lit up. Guernsey
Speaker 1: staffers shook their heads in disbelief. Ettinger said he needed
Speaker 1: to sit down before I collapse. The buyer wished to remain, anonymous,
Speaker 1: anger said, offering an unconvincing explanation of why this person
Speaker 1: would pay nine million dollars for all four when they've
Speaker 1: been available at the start of the auction for seven
Speaker 1: and a half million dollars. To try to imagine what
Speaker 1: they're thinking is impossible, Edtinger offered. You get into a mood,
Speaker 1: you get things happening. I can't say why Duncan and
Speaker 1: Jackie flew back to Austin the next day, assured by
Speaker 1: Guernsey's that the deal would be finalized soon, but then nothing.
Speaker 1: Ettinger told Duncan the mystery buyer needed more time to
Speaker 1: gather the cash because of the financial turmoil of the
Speaker 1: coronavirus pandemic, and a May first deadline to make the
Speaker 1: transfer came and went. A few days later, Duncan received
Speaker 1: an email from Inger with what seemed like great news.
Speaker 1: The buyer would be willing to throw in another one
Speaker 1: million dollars if he could have some time to get
Speaker 1: the money together. Duncan was still optimistic. Let's give him
Speaker 1: the benefit of the doubt, he said, the buyer must
Speaker 1: really want it. A week afterward, there was still no
Speaker 1: sign of the cash, and Duncan was getting anxious. It
Speaker 1: all felt like deja vu, a version of the checks
Speaker 1: in the mail assurances he'd received right before the ARBITRTE
Speaker 1: deal fell through. He'd asked Ettinger repeatedly to connect him
Speaker 1: with the buyer directly, to no avail. He was starting
Speaker 1: to wonder, he said, whether there was really anyone on
Speaker 1: the other side of the own at the auction. In
Speaker 1: a mid July interview, Ettinger rejected that speculation, saying he'd
Speaker 1: been in regular contact with the buyer who was hit
Speaker 1: broadside as many many people have been by the virus
Speaker 1: and its effects. The sale is still alive, he said.
Speaker 1: We're hoping for the best and remain optimistic. Despite Duncan's
Speaker 1: difficulty closing a deal and his insistence that the hands
Speaker 1: deserve to be seen by as many people as possible,
Speaker 1: he says he has no plans to donate them to
Speaker 1: a museum or charity. For one thing, He's counting on
Speaker 1: the cash to expand his latest venture, a company that
Speaker 1: converts shipping containers into off grid shelters for disaster zones,
Speaker 1: and he says he sees no contradiction between admiring Mandela
Speaker 1: and seeking a prophet from selling the hands, as even
Speaker 1: the most dedicated collector might if the opportunity arose. I
Speaker 1: knew it was a safe investment, but I admired Mandela passionately,
Speaker 1: he said of his purchase. If Mandela had asked me
Speaker 1: to go to war without thinking, I would have done
Speaker 1: what he asked. Meanwhile, Duncan is still convinced that his
Speaker 1: big score is on its way, Like a rubber ball.
Speaker 1: He's unsquashable. In June, he said that an old friend
Speaker 1: had put him in touch with a possible buyer in
Speaker 1: Italy in case the Guernsey sale never happens. What did
Speaker 1: he know about this new lead? Absolutely nothing. He'd been
Speaker 1: on a conference call with someone who said he was
Speaker 1: representing the Italian but no more than that. We expect
Speaker 1: to call from him any day now with Michael Cohen.
Speaker 1: Find that story and much more from the latest edition
Speaker 1: of Business Week on business Week dot com and at
Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com. I'm Jason Kelly. Catch me and Carol
Speaker 1: Masser every day on the radio for Bloomberg business Week
Speaker 1: two to six pm Wall Street Time. This is Bloomberg