Olympic Auction Just The Ticket

The Age

Wednesday June 21, 2000

STEPHEN CAUCHI

Fancy some Olympic opening ceremony tickets? You can pick some up tonight for about $4000 a pop - but they'll be out of date.

As will be the Olympic ashtray, the Olympic T-shirt, tie, program, number plates and even - wait for it - a car park attendant's uniform.

These are the 1956 Melbourne Olympics we're talking about. Scores of memorabilia will be offered for sale tonight at the South Yarra rooms of auctioneer Leonard Joel.

The three opening ceremony tickets - including an unused ticket - are expected to sell for $4000. Other tickets, including unused tickets for the athletics, are also on sale.

Bidders wanting the two number plates, each embossed with the Olympic rings and 1956VIC, can expect to pay $2000. A competitor's jacket will cost about $800, and the car park attendant's uniform - complete with skirt, jacket, shirt and beret - will sell for $300.

``Quite a few of the auction houses are having sales of this nature, basically because it's getting closer and closer and we're finding there's a demand for it," said Leonard Joel's manager for decorative arts, Jenny Gibson. ``We're anticipating a good result, a packed room, a good hundred or so."

Ms Gibson said that auction bidders had yet to suffer ``pre-GST jitters", so a lot of the items were expected to be snapped up.

``They'll certainly sell, and there's certainly an interest in them. A crystal ball would be great in this business. But we're anticipating a good result."

Ms Gibson said the unused tickets were ``in mint condition".

Other items on offer, and their estimated price, include:

* A T-shirt printed with a running figure carrying the Olympic torch and inscribed ``Olympic Games Melbourne 1956" ($50).

* A commemorative fork, crested by a medallion showing the Olympic rings and torch and inscribed ``XVI Olympiad Melbourne 1956" ($70).

* A pen-and-ink caricature depicting Australian athletes and their achievements ($200).

* A cast-metal replica of the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games torch ($1500).