The possibility of a merger follows the controversial sale of eWolfs’ company assets to William Chrisant, eWolfs’ book director, for just $1000 at an emergency liquidation auction on September 5 and the attempted auction of Dargate as a going concern two days later at which Chrisant’s investors were the only interested party.
Dargate’s current owners Carol and Larry Farley are now ready to negotiate with Chrisant and his principal investor, entrepreneur Daniel Zivko. Last week Daniel Zivko told the Antiques Trade Gazette’s sister paper AntiqueWeek that the first step for the consortium is to buy eWolfs’ assets. “William would put those assets in a new company, and we would fund that company with an unspecified amount of capital. Then we move forward to talk to Larry and Carol Farley to purchase Dargate,” Zivko said.
“I was thinking that if there was a purchase of Dargate, we would keep the in-house auctions in Pittsburgh and Cleveland would become more of a property office where we would use the eWolfs connection to bring in merchandise and ship to Pittsburgh.
“In Cleveland we would concentrate on books, photographs, manuscripts and prints, and probably do that in an Internet format similar to what eWolfs is doing. Everything else would be auctioned live and through iCollector and eBay in Pittsburgh.”
Dargate and eWolf may merge to cover Midwest
USA: As Sotheby’s scale down their operations in the American Midwest, the possiblity of a new auction powerhouse in the region has emerged as a group of investors seek to gain control of both Dargate Auction Rooms of Pittsburgh and the Cleveland-based eWolfs.
