From Custer’s Flag to the Original Rules of Basketball, Selby Kiffer Has a Deal for You
December 9, 2010 at 5:54 pm Ryan Jones 1 comment
Our colleague Vicki Fong in the College of the Liberal Arts just gave us a heads up on alumnus Selby Kiffer, for whom Friday figures to be a pretty big day at the office.
Kiffer ’78, ’81g is a senior specialist and senior vice president at Sotheby’s, the international auction house. In New York on Friday, he’ll preside over a series of auctions that’ll leave history buffs of all sorts drooling. The first is a collection of rare books and manuscripts, highlighted by a handwritten copy of the lyrics to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin,” signed by Dylan himself. After that, it’s a flag recovered from the body of one of George Armstrong Custer’s troops after the Battle of the Little Bighorn; a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln and once owned by Robert F. Kennedy; and the original copy of the rules of basketball, written by James Naismith, inventor of the game.
The estimated combined auction value of the four items mentioned above? As much as $9 million.
Ryan Jones, senior editor
Entry filed under: Penn State alumni. Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Bob Dylan, Emancipation Proclamation, George Armstrong Custer, James Naismith, Robert F. Kennedy, Selby Kiffer, Sotheby's.
Subscribe
1. Big Money at the Sotheby’s Auction « The Penn Stater Magazine | December 13, 2010 at 12:30 pm
[...] 2010 Last week Ryan Jones mentioned that Selby Kiffer ’78, ’81g would be overseeing a pretty high-profile auction at Sotheby’s last Friday. And sure enough, some notable American artifacts—and some big [...]