Frank Lloyd Wright desk, chair, absent from auction site

 Both pieces were valued at a combined estimate of $480,000 to $720,000. The two items had been slated to go on the auction block Wednesday.

But SC Johnson & Son Inc. filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York against Sotheby’s and a California man who put them up on consignment, seeking to block those items from being sold by the New York-based auction house. Instead, the Racine-based company wants the furniture — without logging the highest bid.

According to Sotheby’s auction catalog, the desk and chair once had been in the SC Johnson & Son administration building in Racine, which Wright also designed. But the desk, previously marked as lot 147 in Sotheby’s auction, was acquired by chemist Elerslie E. Luther of Berkeley, Calif., in about 1950. It then was passed down to his son, Everett B. Luther, about 1960, and then to his son, Jeffrey V. Luther, in about 1990, according to Sotheby’s. It then was acquired by an unnamed California man, listed in the lawsuit as “John Doe” and sent to Sotheby’s on consignment.

The office chair, lot 148 according to Sotheby’s auction catalog, was a gift from Samuel C. Johnson to a private collector in 1972. The chair then was sold to the unidentified California man in 2002.

But SC Johnson disputed that chain of ownership.