Bamber challenged over sale of aunt’s treasures
When ex-University Challenge host Bamber Gascoigne unexpectedly inherited West horsley Place in Surrey, he pledged to rescue the crumbling Grade I-listed home from ruin.
But while the country house fraternity was delighted with the Old etonian quizmaster’s largesse — he could have just flogged the historic home of his great aunt Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe — I hear that his project has been met with some resistance.
Gascoigne, 80, plans to fund half of the estimated £4 million worth of required repairs with an auction of 662 of his great aunt’s possessions later this month at Sotheby’s, including furniture, precious objects and paintings, some of which are expected to receive bids north of £50,000. however, the sale has been complicated by an extraordinary intervention from the current Duke of Roxburghe, Guy InnesKer, who demanded that a ‘quantity’ of items be withdrawn, insisting they were his family’s property from his father, the 9th Duke, whose first wife was Bamber’s great aunt. ‘West horsley belonged to Mary’s own family, so everything from there now belongs to Bamber,’ says my source.
‘But some items in the auction were from her London flat, which the Roxburghe family leased for her following their divorce in 1953, and the current Duke has demanded them back.
‘Mary and the Duke’s divorce was rather bitter, I am afraid.’
Visitors to the private view last week weren’t even able to see an auction catalogue due to the wrangling and it was only sent out this Thursday.
Gascoigne learned he was to be the childless Duchess’s heir last summer, following her death aged 99.
Asked about the Duke’s apparent intervention, Bamber remarks coyly: ‘There have been discussions going on about some items.’
A Sotheby’s spokesman says: ‘A number of items on loan from the Dukes of Roxburghe were returned to Floors Castle [their seat in the Scottish Borders]. The process was an open dialogue and relevant individuals were consulted.’