The rich are indeed different from you and me. They are also different from one another. On Saturday, two diametrically opposite collections will go to auction in the city. Textbook exemplars of old and new money, they demonstrate two facts of life that keep the auction houses in business: death and debt.

Sotheby’s is hosting the old money sale, the auction of the contents of Italian socialite Marella Agnelli’s Park Avenue apartment, expected to bring $7 million-$9 million. A death appears to have prompted this. Gianni Agnelli, Mrs. Agnelli’s husband and the founder of Fiat, died in January 2004. She has sold her apartment and is now disposing of the contents.

The Agnellis lived mainly in Turin, but kept houses all over the world. (In fact, Mrs. Agnelli’s lavish Corsican retreat is featured in the October issue of House & Garden.) They liked a golden touch and much of the furniture and decoration has touches of gilt. But they could afford to buy the good stuff, and the sale is loaded down with the Louis, the top example being a 1775 Louis XVI desk estimated at $3-$5 million. “It’s to die over fabulous,” said antiques dealer Helen Constantino Fioratti of L’Antiquaire & the Connoisseur. “It’s Neoclassical French, but it’s sober.”

The Agnellis did not have a life of unfettered bliss. Gianni Agnelli had a reputation as a womanizer (conquests ranged from Rita Hayworth to Pamela Harriman), and in 2000, their son Edoardo committed suicide. But though the family fortune has shrunk, the Agnelli name has stirred up excitement in Italy, and it’s likely bidders from Roma and Firenze will burn up the phone lines, exchanging lira for a piece of the legendary name. The sale includes a pair of 1780 French chests decorated with painted papier-mache panels, estimated $50,000-$80,000, as well as a silver-plated cocktail shaker in the form of a Penguin, estimated $1,000-$1,500.

Tepper is hosting this week’s newmoney sale. A turreted Tudor North Carolina mansion has been stripped bare, and hand-sewn couture silk curtains, teak pool furniture, and Manolo Blahniks were boxed up and trucked to the city last week. Little evidence of the lavish decor reportedly remains, but the rotunda above the main staircase still shimmers with 24-carat gold-leaf paint.

This is the debt sale. The sellers are a consortium of Japanese companies that won the house in a $400 million settlement against Fortress Re, a reinsurance company, and its owners, Kenneth Kornfeld and Maurice Sabbah. The companies had accused Mr. Kornfeld and his partner of paying themselves exorbitant management fees, and said that Mr. Kornfeld had paid for the North Carolina house and his four New York apartments with money from the reinsurance fund.

The furnishings being sold at Tepper belonged to Mr. Kornfeld, who furnished his home over the past decade, creating a Gatsby-like world of wealth and privacy. Mr. Kornfeld was a poor kid from Brooklyn who made a fortune in the 1990s and lived in a manner to impress even Robin Leach. When the money was flowing, he flew the Concorde, reserving four rows of seats surrounding his own to avoid talking to anyone.

But now Mr. Kornfeld’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” days are over. In the settlement he reportedly lost a $8 million house in Aspen, three condominiums at Millennium Tower on the Upper West Side, a Gulfstream Jet, and cars worth $120,000. The house in Greensboro, N.C., is now on the market for $6.5 million, making it the most expensive home in town. The contents go on view at Tepper tomorrow, and are expected to bring about $1 million.

The decorator set should have a feed ing frenzy over the Kornfeld’s Aubusson carpets, Fortuny lamps, and fancy French chairs upholstered in pink quilted silk (est. $700-$1,000).The top lot is a pair of 18th-century George II console tables, with an eye-popping amount of gilt, est. $60,000-$80,000. But most of the items are far cheaper, many under a thousand dollars. This sale presents a great opportunity for buyers to find a couple of pieces to spruce up that Manhattan apartment: Sofas start around $300 and rugs around $200.

While some of the stuff is borderline Bordello, with a little digging one can find items of serious style, including a neoclassical gilt bronze starburst mirror (est.$2,000-$3,000),a trove of Aubusson carpets (prices from $4,000-$20,000), and a collection of mercury glass. Mrs. Kornfeld’s Manolos (size 7) and designer clothes (Prada, Gucci, size 0-2) will be sold November 6.

Stuffed into Tepper’s 25th Street gallery, the Kornfelds’ possessions seem a world away from the luxurious one they were assembled to create. While many people profited mightily from them (including their decorator, the Connecticut-based Linda Chase, and 10th Street Antiques dealer Karl Kemp), the stuff they bought will sell for a fraction of the prices they paid. Feel sorry for the Japanese beneficiaries, who are going to have a heck of a time trying to get their money back.