Three Treasures Sold at Sotheby's New York - 10 December 2010
Friday afternoon at Sotheby’s New York, three remarkable treasures were sold for outstanding prices and two new auction records were established. Sotheby’s Vice Chairman David Redden presided over the hushed salesroom as the Kennedy-Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation, Custer’s Last Flag: The Culbertson Guidon from the Battle of the Little Bighorn and James Naismith’s Founding Rules of Basketball came across the auction block in chronological order. Applause greeted the successful sale of each historic object.
Kennedy-Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation -- $3.8 million
Robert F. Kennedy’s copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, set a new auction record for any presidential document when it sold for $3,778,500, more than double its pre-sale high estimate. The Emancipation Proclamation is one of only twenty-five copies of the document known to survive, of which eighteen are in institutional collections. It was purchased at auction by then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1964, who was inspired by the centennial celebration of its signing held the year before.
Custer’s Last Flag: The Culbertson Guidon from the Battle of the Little Bighorn - $2.2 million
Two bidders competed for Custer’s Last Flag, which sold to an American Private Collector. The flag was consigned by the Detroit Institute of Art, where it had not been on view since 1928. Commenting on the sale, Graham W.J. Beal, DIA director said, “We are delighted that the Custer Guidon fetched $2,210,500 at auction. The proceeds, which can only be used to purchase art, will go towards acquiring Native American works, still to be determined.”
James Naismith’s Founding Rules of Basketball -- $4.3 million
After several minutes of intense bidding, the two-page document comprising a set of 13 rules to a new game invented by James Naismith in 1891 sold for $4,338,500, more than double the pre-sale estimate of $2 million and a new record for any piece of sports memorabilia ever sold at auction. James Naismith’s Founding Rules of Basketball were purchased by David and Suzanne Booth, who hope to bring them to the University of Kansas. Mr. Booth is an alumnus of the University of Kansas and he and his wife were inspired to bid by lifelong Kansas basketball fan Josh Swade. Naismith brought basketball to Kansas in 1898 and mentored the great Forrest “Phog” Allen, who in turn mentored Adolph Rupp and Dean Smith. The rules were sold by the Naismith family and the proceeds of the sale will go towards the Naismith International Basketball Foundation.
