Five days after a decision of the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas ordering the City Controller to sign the much disputed Consignment Agreement between the City of Harrisburg and Guernsey Auction House, Mayor Linda Thompson announces the sale of the City-owned Western artifacts is back on.

Since the Spring of 2012, the Mayor and Controller Dan Miller have been in a legal battle over the validity of the contract between the New York auction house and the City. In the end, the Court has declared the Mayor's position is the right one and with that, Guernsey's will proceed with selling off the infamous artifacts. Thompson says the sale is expected to be held by mid-summer with Guernsey estimating the value of the artifacts to be $3 to 6 million.

Guernsey's commission is 18% on the first one million dollars gross sales; 15% on the next $1-2 million; and 12.5% for gross sales above $2 million. There will also be a 19% commission on online sales.

There is some confusion as to which artifacts the City owns and which artifacts The Harrisburg Authority owns, but the Mayor proclaimed, "Well, you know, there's some issues where the Harrisburg Authority is claiming that some of the artifacts are theirs, and we'll work through that process. There's been no facts proven yet."

As of the Mayor's presser, she said the Controller had still not signed the Consignment Agreement.

Part I: Thousands of collectors in the City over a multi-week event

Part II: "Had the auction occurred as planned, millions of dollars would have entered into the Treasury about two months ago."

Part III: "We were on the side of right."

by Tara Leo Auchey

photos by Natalie Cake