JACQUELINE Kennedy Onassis was a very private person. She was the nearest to royalty that American ever had, but with more style and grace than a Princess Di.
But she never ran to the tabloids when the going got tough. New York loved her for that. At the same time she walked the streets of the city, strolled in Central Park in her trademark sunglasses and head scarf and dined in restaurants where people would hold their cutlery motionless as she passed but generally left her alone.
This air of mystique clearly makes the prospect of acquiring some of her belongings alluring to her millions of fans. Sotheby's auction house in New York has been overwhelmed by calls from all over the world since it said an auction would be held of all her private belongings for four days from April 23rd.
Some 2,000 buyers, chosen by lottery, will squeeze into Sotheby's sales rooms when bidding opens on the first lot, which is a couple of engravings of sea shells valued at less than $1,000 (£637).
Thousands more treasure seekers will bid by telephone from centres around the world for the 4,000 items which went to make up the intimate world of Jacqueline Onassis, apart from the items already taken by her children, John and Caroline, or donated to libraries Or museums. The last lot will be Jacqueline's 1992 BMW sedan, worth about $20,000.
The most expensive item is a 40.42 carat diamond ring worth at least $500,000, which was a present from her second husband, shipping millionaire, Aristotle Onassis. The least expensive lots include costume pearls worth something only because they once adorned the neck of Jacqueline Kennedy.
There are some expensive pieces of furniture, like the Louis XVI mahogany desk on which President John F. Kennedy signed a nuclear test ban treaty in 1963. It was used only because a small desk was needed to allow everyone to fit into the room for the signing. This should go for about $25,000.
On the other hand, a faded yellow sofa noteworthy only for the fact that she and other famous people sat upon it should fetch about $600.
About the same sum could get you a set of golf clubs in a black leather bag inscribed "J.F.K. Washington", which would certainly draw attention on the golf course. The auctioneers may have underestimated how much someone would like to say "I'm using President Kennedy's old driver", as he tees off at the first hole.
Americans love what they call "collectibles". And they like to have something touched by their gods. Why else would anyone want Jacqueline's schoolgirl French conjugation book, which is expected to bring in over $500?
In the city with the most celebrities and the best antique stores in America, it is hardly surprising that the interest in Jacqueline Kennedy's possessions has reached a frenzy since it was announced this week they were to be auctioned.
Even the building at 1040 Fifth Avenue, where she lived on the 15th floor, had become a tourist attraction since the most dazzling First Lady of the century died almost two years ago. In this country people create tourist shrines from buildings associated with celebrity. The nearby hotel in Manhattan, the Plaza, where Home Alone Two starring Macauley Culkin was made, attracts visitors from all over America who come in groups just to walk around the foyer and stare.
Other parts of the world have "Wordsworth country" or "Yeats's country". In America there's "Jackie country", the part of the city where she lived and shopped. A travel company provides a two hour walking tour. Sightseers follow guides gaze up at the windows both large, stone apartment peer into Gristede's market where she did her shopping, walk round Encore she traded designer dresses, tip toe through St Thomas More's Church where she prayed.
It's not as if there was anything special about her apartment. There was nothing grand or ostentatious about it, writes her social secretary, Nancy Tuckerman, in the catalogue. "It was inviting and comfortable with a pleasing lived in feel to it. She was not in the habit of changing or rearranging furniture."
Mundane as they are, getting to see all the objects she collected during her life time will be difficult. Already 300,000 people have requested tickets for one hour's viewing, which themselves are likely to become hot property on the black market.
The 584 page catalogue for the sale has itself become a collector's item. The hard back edition costs $95 and the paperback $45. The previous best selling catalogue was for the Duchess of Windsor's estate, which sold 5,000 copies. Because of the huge demand more than 100,000 have been printed for this auction. More than 23,000 were sold before they came out. The New York Post is running a "Win a Jackie Catalogue contest" which asks trivia questions about Mrs Onassis: quick, who was the American president who said "I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris?"