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Peek at Anthony Bourdain’s personal keepsakes at an auction in Texas

The New Braunfels gallery will show off the late chef’s Tom Ford tuxedo, a pair of skull cufflinks and more.

Fans of the late chef Anthony Bourdain can buy some of his personal items at a high-profile auction with a surprising link to Texas.

Late chef Anthony Bourdain wore this Tom Ford tuxedo to the Emmys a few years before he...
Late chef Anthony Bourdain wore this Tom Ford tuxedo to the Emmys a few years before he died. It's on display on a mannequin in Texas.(Courtesy of Lark Mason Associates)

Most are on display in New York City, Bourdain’s beloved hometown. But 16 of those 202 keepsakes are housed in a gallery in New Braunfels, Texas, and fans can stop in to get a sense of his complicated personality.

Bourdain died by suicide in early 2018.

Items housed in Texas include a Tom Ford tuxedo Bourdain wore at the Emmys; a pair of skull hologram cufflinks; and a chef’s coat.

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The entire 202-item catalogue can be viewed — and vied for — online. If all the items sell, they’re valued between $200,000 and $400,000, says Lark Mason III, the vice president of Lark Mason Associates. He moved to Central Texas three years ago to open a Texas branch of the company. Lark Mason is the presenter of the Bourdain collection, and the 202 pieces of his life are on display in Texas, New York and Georgia through Oct. 30. Forty percent of the proceeds will go to the Anthony Bourdain Legacy Scholarship, which awards Culinary Institute of America students money to spend a semester abroad, studying global cuisine.

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Traveling was one of Bourdain’s passions, and his TV shows No Reservations and Parts Unknown took viewers on culinary adventures in areas of the world that some Americans had never visited.

A pair of Anthony Bourdain's Alexander McQueen skull hologram cufflinks are up for auction....
A pair of Anthony Bourdain's Alexander McQueen skull hologram cufflinks are up for auction. This piece is on display in New Braunfels, Texas. It shows Bourdain's fascination with skulls.(Courtesy of Lark Mason Associates)
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The auction items offer a romp inside the mind of a perplexing, brilliant chef. Mason describes Bourdain as a person with “diversity of character” — someone who loved travel, style, food and art.

Some of the items are simple housewares, like an upholstered sleeper couch that starts at $700 or a bookcase currently marked at $175.

One of the highest-dollar items in the Anthony Bourdain auction collection is a custom-made...
One of the highest-dollar items in the Anthony Bourdain auction collection is a custom-made knife.(Courtesy of Lark Mason Associates)

One of the most expensive items, on display in New York City, is a custom knife made by Bob Kramer. Mason says the knife started at $2,000 and is up to a bid of $21,000.

The collection also has a fair amount of mid-century modern furniture, including some pieces that reportedly reminded Bourdain of his favorite hotel, Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. “He liked coming home and feeling like he was at his favorite hotel,” Mason says.

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Another interesting addition is a 22-inch-tall sculpture of the Michelin Man, listed for now at $3,000. Notes show that it was given to Bourdain by Marco Pierre White, the youngest chef to get three Michelin stars for one of his restaurants, at age 33. The two chefs were friends, and White called Bourdain “the Hemingway of gastronomy” after his death.

The 16 items on display in New Braunfels can be viewed here. Mason says anyone is welcome to visit the gallery at 210 W. Mill St., New Braunfels, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday until Oct. 30.

Mason notes that the items sent to Texas were carefully picked so anyone perusing them would get a fairly full picture of Bourdain’s interests, despite the small number of pieces. One of the more interesting items is a photo and framed note from Billy Joel — who is performing a high-profile concert in North Texas on Oct. 12. According to a story Mason shared, Bourdain used to tell his chefs they couldn’t play Joel’s music in his kitchen during service. Later, Bourdain invited Joel into his home so they could cook together.

Stop into the Lark Mason gallery in New Braunfels and you'll see this note from Billy Joel...
Stop into the Lark Mason gallery in New Braunfels and you'll see this note from Billy Joel to Anthony Bourdain.(Courtesy of Lark Mason Associates)

The note reads “Dear Anthony -

... so much for your rule - ‘no Billy Joel in my kitchen.’ I do love your food, I just hope nobody spit in it. By the way, I don’t like The Grateful Dead either.

Love, Billy Joel.”

The current bid for the framed piece is $4,000.

Many of the items are priced reasonably. Several of Bourdain’s jackets, for instance, are listed at just a few hundred bucks.

“What we didn’t want to do is make things inaccessible to his fans,” Mason says. But he expects some of that to change, depending on the piece.

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“We know the pieces are going to go up,” he says.