Lincoln items once destined for state museum sell as part of $1.3 million auction

Nearly 200 artifacts mostly linked to Abraham Lincoln sold for more than $1 million at a Chicago auction Thursday, including some items originally purchased for display at the state-run Lincoln presidential museum in Springfield.

The sale by Freeman’s is believed to have included pieces of a $23 million purchase in 2007 by a foundation originally set up to acquire one-of-a-kind Lincoln relics for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

One of those that appeared to be from that acquisition from West Coast Lincoln aficionado Louise Taper was a folding framed portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth. Inside the frame were a few loose strands of dark hair purportedly plucked from Booth’s head after he was gunned down at Garrett’s Farm on April 26, 1865.

That piece sold for $7,000, which was below the auction house’s pre-auction price estimate of between $10,000 and $15,000.

Other items linked to Taper was a bust of Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg once owned by Marilyn Monroe that sold for $1,300. That fell in the range of Freeman's pre-auction price estimate of between $1,000 and $2,000.

Another piece that appeared to come from Taper’s collection was a bust of former Union Army General and 18th President Ulysses Grant. It fetched $2,000, which was also in line with Freeman’s pre-auction estimate.

A rare 34-star eagle parade flag with the names of Lincoln and Vice President Andrew Johnson fetched the most money. The $220,000 item, which was not affiliated with Taper's collection, was the only one to surpass a $100,000 bid.

The owner of the Taper items, the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, would not publicly say if it was selling off more of its Lincoln artifacts to pay off remaining debt from the 2007 purchase.

Last May, the foundation funneled several one-of-a-kind Lincoln artifacts through Freeman’s for that purpose, including a set of blood-stained gloves that were in Lincoln’s coat pocket the night Booth assassinated him at Ford’s Theater. Also included was Lincoln’s earliest known handwriting sample from 1824.

Originally, the foundation and presidential museum were partners in the mission to acquire Lincoln artifacts for the public to see in Springfield, the 16th president’s hometown. Whatever got acquired eventually was to have been turned over to the state for permanent display in the museum.

But relations turned sour between the two entities, driven partly by acrimony surrounding the inability to authenticate a one-time cornerstone of the Taper acquisition, a stovepipe hat that purportedly belonged to Lincoln.