VoB SELECTS: INVESTIGATIVE NEWS FROM AROUND THE WEB
A vial of Ronald Reagan's blood went on sale Wednesday, obtaining a $14,000 online auction bid. (Photo/Courtesy, Ronald Reagan Library)
GARNERS $14,000 BID
AT ONLINE AUCTION
UPDATE (2:30 p.m.): Auction canceled, Reagan’s blood to be kept “out of public hands” (see end of story, below)
Had it not been for term limits and Alzheimer’s, and the fact that in 2004 at age 93 he died, Ronald Reagan might still be President, his popularity only increases with every passing year.
Some 400,000 visitors flock to his California museum each year, buying photographs, biographies and his favorite candy, Jelly Bellys, in an attempt to get a piece of the nation’s 40th President.
“But now, the sale of a very personal effect of the late president is stirring a controversy,” the Wall Street Journal reported on its website Wednesday — his blood, a vial of which topped $14,000 in an online auction scheduled to end Thursday.
READ THE DETAILS IN THE MAY 24th EDITION OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (click here)
UPDATE: AUCTION CANCELED, REAGAN’S BLOOD TO BE KEPT “OUT OF PUBLIC HANDS”
In the wake of intense publicity and a complaint from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, the European auction house that was offering a vial reportedly containing dried residue of the late President’s blood has backed down and officially canceled the auction.
The seller will instead donate the sample to the Reagan Foundation, whose director expressed thanks for ensuring that the blood “remains out of public hands,” as first reported late morning Thursday by the Washington Post.
FOR DETAILS, SEE THE COMPLETE WASHINGTON POST STORY (click here) plus the auction house statement canceling the sale (click here)
