Jacket, books, photos and other Kennedy memorabilia fetch $2m

Thousands of items that belonged to a long-time aide of President John F Kennedy sold for as much as $2 million (€1

Thousands of items that belonged to a long-time aide of President John F Kennedy sold for as much as $2 million (€1.5 million) at auction, nearly 50 years after the president’s assassination.

A birthday card from his son, the late John F Kennedy jnr, fetched $17,000, a flag flown on Kennedy’s motorcade limousine sold for $55,000, while a seal that hung above the aide’s desk in the West Wing sold for $17,000, excluding buyers’ premiums.

A top sale item in the bidding that began on Sunday morning was Kennedy’s Air Force One bomber jacket, which sold for $570,000, far greater than the expectation of a $20,000 to $40,000 final bid.

The collection included letters, photographs, books and other items by the late David Powers, a former aide who became curator of the John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston before retiring in 1994. – (Reuters)