Luxury furniture that appears to have belonged to David Walliams was auctioned off for a six-figure sum weeks before he was publicly accused of grooming women and girls for sex.
The 55-year-old’s career has crumbled in a matter of days after he failed to block the media from publishing allegations of sexual misconduct – with books withdrawn, his most recent film adaptation dropped and his agents stepping away.
Earlier this year, the comedian and children’s author listed his luxury London mansion for sale with an asking price of £11.95million, before slashing the price to £10.5million last month as he continued to fight to retain anonymity in the media at the High Court.
It has now emerged that the comedian, who vehemently denies any allegations of inappropriate behaviour, appears to have sold more than £100,000 of luxury Hermès pieces weeks before he was unmasked as an alleged predator.
Boutique auctioneers Lots Road Auctions, based in Fulham in south-west London, held a furniture event on October 12 and 13 that featured dozens of items near-identical to furniture pictured in the removed listing.
As of this week, the listing for his ‘exceptional residence’ – which Walliams snapped up for £8.45million in August 2013 – has disappeared from the directory of luxury estate agents Marcus Parfitt and other sites such as Rightmove.
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David Walliams appears to have sold more than £100,000 of items made by the luxury French design house Hermès that appear in photographs of his home
A pair of Hermès sofas resembling those in Walliams’ drawing room sold for £14,500 and £21,500, while a Hermès throw worth £1,620 went for £550
A pair of floor lamps from the French design house worth £20,000 each fetched £14,500 as a pair; the cushions pictured sold for £360
Walliams, pictured during filming of what would be his final series of Britain’s Got Talent in 2022, has denied allegations that he is a ‘sexual predator’
It described the event as a ‘fine interiors auction featuring a private collection of Hermès furniture’. However, it has since scrubbed the reference to Hermès and delisted 40 items, including those that appear in Walliams’ home, from its archives.
Among them were a pair of Hermès three-seater saddle-stitched leather sofas – RRP £75,000 – that sold for £14,500 and £21,500 apiece, and floor lamps from the French design house worth £20,000 each that fetched £14,500 as a pair.
Other Hermès items matching those in his drawing room included cushions sold for £360 and a £1,620 throw, a pair of £10,000 coffee tables and a £60,000 Asprey Ritz-Carlton cocktail trolley which fetched £550, £5,800 and £11,000 respectively.
Other sold items resembling those seen in Walliams’ bedroom included a £25,000 leather and oak bench for £6,800, a £15,000 chair for £3,800, and a patterned folding screen for £3,600 valued at $28,300 (£18,000) when launched in 2013.
In all, at least 17 items that matched those seen in photographs of Walliams’ London home sold for a total of £109,570, according to independent reports of the auction.
Lots Road, which publishes details of its previous events dating back five years online, has scrubbed Lots 1-40 from its report of the October 12-13 event.
Alongside the items seen at Walliams’ home, other lots gone from the web include 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.
Items resembling those in Walliams’ bedroom also appeared for sale in listings from the Fulham auction house
Among the items that resemble those in Walliams’ home were a £25,000 leather and oak bench that sold for £6,800, and a £15,000 chair that fetched £3,800 – both Hermès
This patterned Hermès screen, valued at roughly £18,000 when new in 2013, sold for £3,600 at auction. One like it sits at the rear of Walliams’ bedroom
Facebook posts referencing the Hermès goods are still indexed by search engines, but are no longer available to view in full.
The auction house has also removed a reference to a ‘private collection of Hermès furniture’ from its upcoming event next week, though the items are still listed for sale.
Among them are a coffee table that resembles that in Walliams’ drawing room, estimated to fetch £12,000-£18,000, a pair of armchairs that resemble those in his living room, asking for a similar amount.
A bedside lamp resembling one seen in his bedroom has already attracted a bid of £700. Other items that did not sell last month, including a set of nested tables and a luxury magazine rack that could fetch £7,000, are due to appear in the next auction.
There is no suggestion that staff at Lots Road knew of the allegations against Mr Walliams before they were made public following a joint investigation by The Guardian and ITV News on Tuesday.
Walliams’ London home was removed from estate agency listings this week, following a near-£1.5million price cut last month.
Reports in the Telegraph suggest a boutique law firm has lodged an application with the Land Registry to update the property’s title.
Records show Walliams has taken out two mortgages against the mansion since he purchased it in 2013.
The Daily Mail has approached Lots Road Auctions, Marcus Parfitt Residential Sales and representatives for David Walliams for comment.
A High Court judge previously dismissed Walliams’ bid to prevent the publication of the allegations made against him but granted him permission to appeal and temporarily kept his identity secret.
Lawyers for the star had sought to argue that the publication of the report would be a risk to his life, following two previous suicide attempts.
But Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed the application last week, deeming any permanent restriction on naming him as an ‘exceptionally serious’ restriction on the freedom of expression of both the media and Walliams’ accusers.
The investigation, which took in more than 100 interviews including 30 first-hand accounts, claimed that Walliams exploited his celebrity status to prey on teenage girls and young women in pursuit of sex, allegedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
Another view of Walliams’ drawing room shows that he owned what appears to be a £60,000 Asprey Ritz-Carlton cocktail trolley, parked beside his fireplace
A similar trolley was sold for £11,000 at the auction last month – but its listing, and those of the Hermès items, have been removed from Lots Road’s website
The listing for Walliams’ £10.5million London home (pictured) was removed this week
One woman, known as Jade, alleged that she endured ‘sexual assault’ and ‘grooming’ after meeting him in 2007 when she was 15 and he was 36.
Another woman, named by the news organisations as Alex, also accused Walliams of grooming her, and alleged she was having sex with him by the time she was 17.
A young woman named Lilly Creightmore, who said she met Walliams when she was 18 at a live filming of Little Britain, alleges he was ‘trying to coerce me into sleeping with him’ after claiming he asked her to stay in his bed every night.
And a model known by the pseudonym Ella alleges Walliams tried to kiss her when they were alone after she met him at a party in 2007 when she was 19 and he was 36.
Walliams has vehemently denied all allegations made against him, rejects any allegations of criminal activity and said he has never engaged in the grooming of young women.
He also denies ‘buying’ a junior Britain’s Got Talent employee’s silence after the man claimed he was given £300 having found the star in a towel in his dressing room with two ‘very young people’.
BGT production firm Fremantle, while ‘disturbed and concerned’ by the allegations, says it was never made aware of any complaints about Walliams’ behaviour.
A former staff member at HarperCollins said normal working practices had to be changed around Walliams and young women were not sent on their own to his home.
Walliams allegedly embarked upon a ‘consensual sexual’ relationship with a young intern who did visit his house alone and pursued another.
The fallout from the investigation has been quick, and seismic.
HarperCollins has withdrawn Walliams’ books from sale while broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4 and Sky have pulled his shows from their archives.
His literary and his talent agents have stepped away, while Alton Towers closed its World of David Walliams area 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 realise I did not always take people’s feelings properly into account. That is something I regret.
‘And whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that 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
