I tried from the start of the auction to contact Steve in order to arrange transferring the payment for the painting to his account, which would have been pretty simple for Steve if he had an email address and didn't mind signing up for Paypal. Stories regarding the auction appeared on Gawker, ABCnews.com, MSNBC.com, The Wall Street Journal, etc., so I assumed if Steve was following the news he would eventually notice the story and contact me. For the record, I also emailed his online legal defense fund site asking for a way to directly contact Steve, but they never responded as well.
A week ago I received a phone call from Good Morning America. They wanted to air a promo on the painting but needed some word back from Steve or a family member that they were aware of the auction and approved of it, which I can understand; if GMA was going to plug the auction they didn't want to feel scammed.
Finally by way of a message on Steven Slater's lawyers phone I was able to contact Steven's publicist, Howard Bragman of Fifteen Minutes. Howard personally responded immediately, declining to help but offering best wishes on the auction and a promise of maybe sometime in the future setting up a Steve Slater legal fund which anyone could contribute to.
So, I decided to pull the auction. I couldn't in good faith accept someone else's money and then transfer it over to a second-hand party. I was dissapointed that Mr. Bragman could have helped with the auction but didn't.
I'd like to thank all of the people who bid on the auction and all who were following it. The good news is that Steven Slater probably doesn't need your $535 dollars any longer.
