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The Buzz: Best of WSJ.com's Money Blogs

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[From Deal Journal, MarketBeat and Wealth Report]

Owning Leona

Won't Be Cheap

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Christie's Will Auction

Onetime Possessions

Of Real-Estate Heiress

Leona Helmsley is turning over some of her prized possessions to the public. Posthumously, of course. And at a price.

Christie's announced that it will be auctioning about 500 lots from the real-estate billionairess's Greenwich, Conn., and Sarasota, Fla., homes. The baubles include artwork, silver, furniture and jewelry.

Christie's has sold off some of the so-called Queen of Mean's table settings -- an extensive 1940s-era silver and silver-gilt flatware service made by Tiffany, which fetched $133,000, against a presale estimate of $20,000 to $30,000.

For others interested in living like Leona, Christie's also will be auctioning a pair of fine Louis XVI-style ormolu-mounted ebonised and black lacquered side-cabinets "in the manner of Adam Weisweiler, by Henry Dasson, Paris, Circa 1882." Estimated auction price: $150,000 to $200,000.

Also on the block is a "rare" jade figure of a young water buffalo from the 17th or 18th century (price: $400,000 to $600,000) and an Edouard Vuillard painting, "La Cabine sur la plage," for an estimated $150,000.

And just to show that she wasn't as mean as her moniker, net proceeds will go to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

-- Robert Frank, The Wealth Report

wsj.com/wealth

Surprises at UBS,

And for UBS

Investors in banking stocks have been engaged for the last six months in a never-ending game of waiting for the "other shoe to drop."

By now, about 33 shoes have hit the floor, and there are plenty more to come.

Switzerland-based UBS surprised the market in the past week with a fourth-quarter update that estimated yearly write-downs at the bank of $19 billion, as it boosted its fourth-quarter estimate for writing down bad-debt positions to $14 billion from $10 billion. Its American depositary shares fell 10.3% in January.

Just as the losses related to collateralized debt obligations are starting to be finally accounted for, there is another worry: losses related to exposure to bond insurers. Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney warned that losses related to exposure to MBIA, Ambac Financial and others could run as high as $70 billion for the banking industry. About half of those positions, she says, are concentrated among three companies: Citigroup, Merrill Lynch and UBS.

The insurers are being threatened with credit-ratings downgrades from Moody's and S&P, which could threaten the ratings of the $2.4 trillion in bonds insured by the two companies, reducing the value of those assets.

From there, it only cascades, as this would "put another $100 billion in assets held by banks in jeopardy of further write-downs," Ms. Whitney says. "This is significant, as many investors are of the belief that the fourth quarter was a 'kitchen sink' for all of the outstanding capital hits this credit cycle," she writes.

-- David Gaffen, MarketBeat

wsj.com/marketbeat

Motorola Left

Icahn on Hold?

Carl Icahn is either lucky or good.

The billionaire investor has long called on Motorola to consider separating out its ailing cellphone business, and in the past week he finally got his way. But Mr. Icahn may have already lost patience with the tech icon. He issued his own statement shortly after the news broke, saying he plans to launch a proxy fight to wrest control of part of Motorola's board, anyway.

The backdrop isn't entirely clear, but it looks like the company may have made the announcement to head off Mr. Icahn, who in recent weeks made Motorola aware of his intentions.

How else to explain why he announced that he is escalating his longstanding quarrel with the company right after it basically came around to his view?

But who knows? Last month, J.P. Morgan Chase analyst Ehud Gelblum speculated that Motorola's management and board had already concluded that the market was giving the handset business a fat goose egg of a valuation -- even though it accounts for about half of the company's $36 billion in annual sales.

It probably doesn't take much to make Mr. Icahn ornery when it comes to Motorola. He bought most of his roughly 75 million Motorola shares when the stock was closer to $18. The stock is still at less than $13 even after a postannouncement bump.

-- Dana Cimilluca, Deal Journal

blogs.wsj.com/deals