A table once owned by Ian Curtis of Joy Division went to auction and today is the final bidding day. Currently the bid has reached £8,200.00. Tel Harrop is the one selling the table, a longtime collector of Joy Division memorabilia. Curtis' family and other bandmates are not happy with the sale of the table and have shared their upset.
In a statement to NME, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris said:
Joy Division original members Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris would like to lend their voice of support to [Ian's widow] Deborah and [Ian's daughter] Natalie Curtis, who have been caused great distress over media reporting of the sale of the table originally owned by the family, and currently being auctioned on eBay...
Deborah and Natalie would like to point out that the sale of this table has nothing whatsoever to do with them. The table was sold along with the house in 1980 and Natalie has never signed any authentication document. Furthermore, they consider the sale of a personal family item, and the subsequent media reporting, to be distasteful and upsetting.
Apparently there have been claims that the table had something to do with Curtis' suicide in 1980, but Harrop says he knew nothing about that. According to him, the controversy with selling the table has been misconstrued. NME reports Harrop saying:
"I can't turn the table on the table story. I'm upset the way its gone but I didn't put it on for the money, I just did it for good intentions. I want the sale to end now because it's all got out of hand. At the end of this it might not even sell - with 10 minutes to go there might be a bunch of retracted bids and I may end up with it."
