Quite creepy but definitely interesting…Auctioneers clearing out the historic Steinway Mansion have made a grisly discovery — a voodoo doll and voodoo masks hidden in the fabled Astoria landmark.
(NY Post) – Experts made the chilling find in the Queens mansion, which was home to the Steinway piano family until the 1920s, as they cleared the attic following the death of its last owner, Michael Halberian, who lived there for 82 years and died in December.
Halberian’s children brought in auctioneer Michael Capo to sell the mansion’s contents, including items left behind by the Steinway family. He told us, “It is eerie. We were clearing out the far reaches of the attic when we came across what looks like a late-19th-century wooden box or trunk.
“We broke the lock and inside we found five voodoo masks and a doll surrounded by rusty nails in a little coffin. I don’t know if the masks are made out of wax, pigskin or even real skin. This thing has some energy, and I am not sure that it’s good energy.
“Everyone went silent. We are professionals, but nobody wants to go near this thing. It is scary. Clearly, somebody used this in some sort of ceremony, because there’s a mirror inside the lid so the image could be reflected to others in the room.
“The Halberians do not think one of their relatives would have owned this. I think it had been there since the late 19th century. It was hidden away in an area where the owner wouldn’t necessarily go, so perhaps a member of the domestic staff kept it there.”
The 27-room palace, packed with such objects as telescopes, barometers and old maps, was built by Benjamin T. Pike Jr. in 1858. In the early 1870s, Pike’s widow sold it to the Steinway family, which had begun moving its piano-making facilities to Astoria from Manhattan. Tailor Jack Halberian bought the mansion at auction in the 1920s after the Steinways moved out. It’s now up for sale for $2.5 million.
Capo will auction off the first lot on March 26 but adds, “I don’t know if we are going to sell the voodoo masks yet. I think we’ll hold on to [them] and get some research done. There’s a dark story here.”
