Luxury furniture believed to have belonged to David Walliams was sold at auction for a six-figure sum just weeks before he was publicly accused of grooming women and girls for sex.
The 55-year-old comedian and children’s author has seen his career unravel within days after failing to prevent the publication of sexual misconduct allegations. His books have been withdrawn, his latest film adaptation has been abandoned and his agents have distanced themselves from him.
Earlier this year, Walliams put his luxury London mansion on the market for £11.95million. The asking price was reduced to £10.5million last month as he continued his legal efforts at the High Court to remain anonymous in media reports.
It has now emerged that the comedian, who strongly denies any allegations of inappropriate behaviour, appears to have sold more than £100,000 worth of luxury Hermès items shortly before he was identified as an alleged predator.
Lots Road Auctions, a boutique auction house in Fulham, south-west London, held a furniture sale on October 12 and 13 featuring dozens of pieces that closely resemble furniture shown in photographs of Walliams’ home.
This week, the listing for his ‘exceptional residence’ – bought by Walliams for £8.45million in August 2013 – disappeared from the website of luxury estate agent Marcus Parfitt and other property platforms, including Rightmove.
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David Walliams appears to have sold more than £100,000 worth of pieces by French luxury design house Hermès that can be seen in photographs of his home
Two Hermès sofas resembling those in Walliams’ drawing room sold for £14,500 and £21,500, while a Hermès throw with a £1,620 value fetched £550
Two floor lamps from the French design house, each valued at £20,000, sold together for £14,500; the cushions pictured fetched £360
Walliams, shown filming what would become his final series of Britain’s Got Talent in 2022, has denied claims that he is a ‘sexual predator’
The auction house advertised the sale as a ‘fine interiors auction featuring a private collection of Hermès furniture’. It has since removed the reference to Hermès and taken 40 lots, including pieces resembling those in Walliams’ home, out of its online archive.
The lots included two Hermès three-seater, saddle-stitched leather sofas, each carrying an RRP of £75,000. One sold for £14,500 and the other for £21,500. A pair of floor lamps from the French design house, valued at £20,000 each, sold for £14,500 together.
Further Hermès pieces matching items in the drawing room included cushions that sold for £360, a £1,620 throw that fetched £550 and two £10,000 coffee tables that sold for £5,800. A £60,000 Asprey Ritz-Carlton cocktail trolley went for £11,000.
Items resembling those pictured in Walliams’ bedroom included a £25,000 leather-and-oak bench, sold for £6,800; a £15,000 chair, which fetched £3,800; and a patterned folding screen that sold for £3,600. The screen had been valued at $28,300 (£18,000) when launched in 2013.
At least 17 items matching pieces shown in photographs of Walliams’ London home sold for a combined £109,570, according to independent reports of the auction.
Lots Road, which keeps details of its previous sales online for five years, has removed Lots 1 to 40 from its report of the October 12-13 event.
The deleted lots included items seen at Walliams’ home as well as Hermès globes, chess sets, reading lamps, eight dining chairs, storage boxes, a waste-paper basket and valet stands that sold for £16,000 and £18,000 each.
Facebook posts mentioning the Hermès pieces remain indexed by search engines, although the full posts can no longer be viewed.
The auction house has also removed the description of a ‘private collection of Hermès furniture’ from its sale scheduled for next week, despite the items remaining listed for auction.
Those pieces include a coffee table resembling one in Walliams’ drawing room, estimated to sell for £12,000 to £18,000, and a pair of armchairs similar to those in his living room, listed within a comparable price range.
Furniture resembling pieces in Walliams’ bedroom also appeared in listings from the Fulham auction house
Among the pieces resembling those in Walliams’ home were a £25,000 Hermès leather-and-oak bench, which sold for £6,800, and a £15,000 chair that fetched £3,800
This patterned Hermès screen, valued at about £18,000 when new in 2013, sold for £3,600. A similar screen appears at the back of Walliams’ bedroom
A bedside lamp resembling one photographed in his bedroom has already attracted a £700 bid. Other pieces that failed to sell last month, including a set of nesting tables and a luxury magazine rack estimated at £7,000, are due to be offered in the next auction.
There is no suggestion that staff at Lots Road knew about the allegations against Walliams before they were reported publicly after a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News on Tuesday.
Walliams’ London property was removed from estate agency listings this week after its asking price was cut by almost £1.5million last month.
The Telegraph reported that a boutique law firm had submitted an application to the Land Registry to update the property’s title.
Land Registry records show that Walliams has taken out two mortgages against the mansion since buying it in 2013.
Our News Outlet has contacted Lots Road Auctions, Marcus Parfitt Residential Sales and representatives of David Walliams for comment.
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A High Court judge previously rejected Walliams’ attempt to stop publication of the allegations against him, but gave him permission to appeal and temporarily withheld his identity.
His lawyers argued that publication of the report could put his life at risk, citing two previous suicide attempts.
However, Mr Justice Nicklin rejected the application last week, describing any permanent ban on naming Walliams as an ‘exceptionally serious’ restriction on freedom of expression for both the media and his accusers.
The investigation, based on more than 100 interviews, including 30 first-hand accounts, alleged that Walliams used his celebrity status to pursue teenage girls and young women for sex and that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl.
Another view of Walliams’ drawing room appears to show a £60,000 Asprey Ritz-Carlton cocktail trolley beside the fireplace
A similar trolley sold for £11,000 at last month’s auction, but its listing and those for the Hermès pieces have since disappeared from the Lots Road website
The listing for Walliams’ £10.5million London home, pictured, was removed this week
Walliams pictured with 18-year-old Lilly Creightmore in London in 2003. She alleges that he groomed her for sex
One woman, referred to as Jade, alleged that she experienced ‘sexual assault’ and ‘grooming’ after meeting Walliams in 2007, when she was 15 and he was 36.
Another woman, identified by the news organisations as Alex, also accused Walliams of grooming her and alleged that she was having sex with him by the time she was 17.
Lilly Creightmore, who said she met Walliams when she was 18 during a live recording of Little Britain, alleged that he was ‘trying to coerce me into sleeping with him’ and said he asked her to stay in his bed every night.
A model referred to by the pseudonym Ella alleged that Walliams tried to kiss her when they were alone after she met him at a party in 2007. She was 19 at the time and Walliams was 36.
Walliams has strongly denied all the allegations, rejected any suggestion of criminal conduct and said he has never groomed young women.
He also denies ‘buying’ the silence of a junior Britain’s Got Talent employee, who claimed he was given £300 after finding the star in a dressing room wearing only a towel with two ‘very young people’.
Fremantle, the production company behind BGT, said it was ‘disturbed and concerned’ by the allegations but had never received any complaints about Walliams’ behaviour.
A former HarperCollins employee said ordinary working arrangements had been changed around Walliams and that young women were not sent to his home alone.
The report alleged that Walliams had a ‘consensual sexual’ relationship with a young intern who did visit his home alone and pursued another woman.
Walliams pictured with his bestselling 2011 children’s book Gangsta Granny. HarperCollins says it is withdrawing all of his books from sale
The repercussions of the investigation have been swift and far-reaching.
HarperCollins has removed Walliams’ books from sale, while broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky have taken his programmes out of their archives.
His literary and talent agents have also parted company with him, and Alton Towers shut its World of David Walliams attraction days before the investigation was published.
In a statement, Walliams said: ‘Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with.
‘I understand that I did not always properly consider people’s feelings. That is something I regret.
‘Although a power imbalance is inevitable when one person is famous, abusing that power is something entirely different – and it is something I never did.
‘I am not a sexual predator… I have not broken the law… I am devastated that some of the women I met ten to twenty years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.’
Do you know more about this story? Email: jon.brady@dailymail.co.uk
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