Rebbe’s Cup Sold for $36,000

By COLlive reporter

A silver-plated kiddush cup that was said to have been used by the Rebbe was sold for $36,000 to an unnamed buyer who was one of its few bidders on Tuesday.

A short while before the sale, the Kedem auction house in Jerusalem notified on its website that “this sale is being conducted without video and audio.” There were a total of 5 bidders on the item.

A trader who frequents the auctions at Kedem said, “there were no bids in the sale, there was no crowd present and none over the internet. At another sale during the same time, there were buyers, offers…for this there was nothing.”

It was a lackluster conclusion to the sale that the auction house expected to do well and sought wide publicity for it to attact Chabad chassidim and admirers of the Rebbe.

The failure to attract buyers was probably due to recent doubts cast over the authenticity of the becher.

Kedem originally listed the item as in good condition and authenticated with “a certificate from one of the Rebbe’s close attendants, ascertaining that this cup was indeed used by the Rebbe for a long period of time.”

Kedem sent interested buyers photos of the becher sitting on a white tablecloth with the signature of Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, who served as the Rebbe’s secretary, attesting to its validity.

But in a public speech last week, Rabbi Krinsky said Kedem “used my name to authorize its identity and its prominence, and it’s a fraud.”

It was the second time Rabbi Krinsky spoke out against Kedem and the items they auction off. A few months ago, Rabbi Krinsky said historic Chabad manuscripts that Kedem was selling were considered stolen property.

Even after Rabbi Krinsky’s statement, the auction house went ahead with the sale, despite the head of Kedem also being alerted by the previous owner of the items, COLlive was told.

“The original seller reached out to Kedem to inform them that he had made a mistake,” an anonymous source told COLlive. “An email was sent to the Kedem company on March 27, 2018, stating that some items were mistakenly sold as legitimate, but that the owner had since discovered that they were not, and he offered to return the purchase money to the person who had bought them.”

In an interview, Kedem’s owner Maron Aran distanced himself from the original claim that the cup was “the legendary becher used by the Rebbe for bentching and havdalah on Motzoei Yom Tov, as well as to pour wine from the kos shel berachah.”

“It may be that the cup offered for sale is not the same as the cup named ‘kos shel bracha’ which the Rebbe used regularly, but another cup that the Rebbe used for a limited period of time, which may explain some of the claims,” he said.

It should be noted that there are over 40,000 pictures of kos shel bracha throughout the years, and the becher which was for sale is not seen in any of those photos.

Aran said another possible reason for the “misunderstanding” was the photo they provided to the press, showing the Rebbe during the Kos Shel Bracha distribution of wine holding a different silver cup. “The picture was only for illustration,” he now says.

“We are aware of the sensitivity to selling such items and we are very sensitive to this,” Aran added. “It was precisely because of this that it was important for us to advertise the sale and not to keep it low profile so that people would know that it was happening.”

“At the same time,” he added, “it is important to understand that the auction house, like every auctions house in the world, does not own the cup and is not a legal party in this. We are only middlemen between the owners and the public, and it is important for us to do so with all the professionalism, integrity and sensitivity required.”