Latest news with #Freeman's|Hindman
New York Post
22-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Abraham Lincoln's blood-stained gloves from the night of his assassination among 144 artifacts on auction
Treasured artifacts associated with President Abraham Lincoln were on the auction block Wednesday, separated from a collection that was intended to be available for public display forever but wound up in the middle of an interagency feud amid a lingering $8 million debt. The blood-stained leather gloves that were in Lincoln's pocket the night he was assassinated were among the 144 items up for bid, 136 of which sold. They were auctioned to pay off the remainder of a two-decade-old loan that the Lincoln Presidential Foundation used to buy a one-of-a-kind cluster of Lincoln artifacts from a California collector. 4 A pair of blood-stained gloves that Abraham Lincoln had when he was assassinated at Freeman's | Hindman in West Loop, Chicago, May 15, 2025. AP The auction at Freeman's/Hindman in Chicago raised $7.9 million, but that includes buyers' premiums of roughly 28% tacked onto each sale to cover the auction house's administrative costs. The gloves were the top-selling items, bringing in $1.52 million including the premium. One of two handkerchiefs Lincoln had with him April 14, 1865, the night he was shot, went for $826,000. A 'Wanted' poster featuring photos of three suspects in the assassination conspiracy, led by John Wilkes Booth, sold for $762,500, far higher than the top estimated price of $120,000. And the earliest known sample of the 16th president's handwriting, from a notebook in 1824, fetched $521,200. Phone and email messages seeking comment were left for the foundation. 4 The blood-stained leather gloves that were in Lincoln's pocket the night he was assassinated were among the 144 items up for bid, 136 of which sold. AP Its website said proceeds from the auction would be put toward retiring the debt and 'any excess funds will go toward our continued care and display of our extensive collection.' The foundation purchased a 1,540-item assemblage in 2007 from Louise Taper for the fledgling Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, which opened in 2005 in the city where he established a law practice and lived while serving in the Illinois Legislature and briefly in Congress. The artifacts were supposed to give the library and museum, which was rich in Lincoln-related manuscripts, a boost in what it lacked — the meaty kind of curios that draw tourists. 4 They were auctioned to pay off the remainder of a two-decade-old loan that the Lincoln Presidential Foundation used to buy a one-of-a-kind cluster of Lincoln artifacts from a California collector. AP But fundraising was slow, forcing the sale of non-Lincoln portions of the collection and threats by the foundation to sell more before it finally extended the loan. In 2012 a controversy arose over what had been the crown jewel of the group — a stovepipe hat, appraised at $6 million, that Lincoln was said to have given as a gift to a southern Illinois supporter. 4 The assassination of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln by actor John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre, Washington DC. Getty Images That story came under intense scrutiny, as reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, resulting in a 2019 study that found there was no evidence the hat belonged to Lincoln. It was not part of Wednesday's auction.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Abraham Lincoln's blood-stained leather gloves are headed for auction
American history buffs will soon be able to bid on a set of 140 rare artifacts that formerly belonged to President Abraham Lincoln. A pair of blood-stained white kid-leather gloves carried by the president during the night of his assassination on April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., an original campaign torch, and his documents, will all be sold by Freeman's | Hindman in Chicago, Illinois, the president's birth state. Individual items in the May 21 Lincoln Legacy auction range from $100 to $800,000, while the entire collection is expected to rake in $4m. The gloves are priced from $800,000 to $1.2 million. 'Each of the items featured in this sale has been curated with care to reveal a nuanced and, at times, surprising portrait of the person who would become one of America's greatest leaders,' Freeman's | Hindman CEO Alyssa Quinlan said. The auction is being presented on behalf of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, a national non-profit that owns an expansive collection of Lincoln-related materials. The organization is retaining 1,400 items for continued scholarly research, programming and loan exhibitions. Some of the items date back to the president's teenage days. In one of the documents, a 15-year-old Lincoln writes: 'Abraham Lincoln is my name / And with my pen I wrote / the same / I wrote in both hast and speed / and left it here for fools / to read.' Auctioneers are hoping to fetch $300,000 to $400,000 for the writing, which is featured on a double-sided sum book leaf covered in long division practice sums and signed three times. In 1837, Lincoln authored the anonymous Adams Handbill, a printed public notice distributed in Springfield, Illinois, ahead of the year's state elections. The organization is asking for $200,000 to $300,000 for the only surviving copy of the president's first printed work. Other offerings include wearable items, early photographs and small keepsakes. A single cuff button with the letter 'L' that the president wore as Actor John Wilkes Booth shot him is valued at $200,000 to $300,000. A surgeon reportedly removed the item to check Lincoln's pulse. Similar items have done well at auction. In 2021, the Norcross family paid $4.4m for a signer's copy of the Declaration of Independence, the highest auction price for an American document printed in the 19th century. A year later, a 1787 letter from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson transmitting a copy of the US Constitution went for $2.4m, doubling pre-sale estimates. Lincoln remains one of the country's most beloved presidents. He served between 1861 and 1865, operating as commander-in-chief during the US Civil War. His victory kept the country intact and stopped the South from seceding. He signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, eliminating slavery in the US. He was shot just a month into his second term.
The Independent
08-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Abraham Lincoln's blood-stained leather gloves are headed for auction
American history buffs will soon be able to bid on a set of 140 rare artifacts that formerly belonged to President Abraham Lincoln. A pair of blood-stained white kid-leather gloves carried by the president during the night of his assassination on April 14, 1865 at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., an original campaign torch, and his documents, will all be sold by Freeman's | Hindman in Chicago, Illinois, the president's birth state. Individual items in the May 21 Lincoln Legacy auction range from $100 to $800,000, while the entire collection is expected to rake in $4m. The gloves are priced from $800,000 to $1.2 million. 'Each of the items featured in this sale has been curated with care to reveal a nuanced and, at times, surprising portrait of the person who would become one of America's greatest leaders,' Freeman's | Hindman CEO Alyssa Quinlan said. The auction is being presented on behalf of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, a national non-profit that owns an expansive collection of Lincoln-related materials. The organization is retaining 1,400 items for continued scholarly research, programming and loan exhibitions. Some of the items date back to the president's teenage days. In one of the documents, a 15-year-old Lincoln writes: 'Abraham Lincoln is my name / And with my pen I wrote / the same / I wrote in both hast and speed / and left it here for fools / to read.' Auctioneers are hoping to fetch $300,000 to $400,000 for the writing, which is featured on a double-sided sum book leaf covered in long division practice sums and signed three times. In 1837, Lincoln authored the anonymous Adams Handbill, a printed public notice distributed in Springfield, Illinois, ahead of the year's state elections. The organization is asking for $200,000 to $300,000 for the only surviving copy of the president's first printed work. Other offerings include wearable items, early photographs and small keepsakes. A single cuff button with the letter 'L' that the president wore as Actor John Wilkes Booth shot him is valued at $200,000 to $300,000. A surgeon reportedly removed the item to check Lincoln's pulse. Similar items have done well at auction. In 2021, the Norcross family paid $4.4m for a signer's copy of the Declaration of Independence, the highest auction price for an American document printed in the 19th century. A year later, a 1787 letter from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson transmitting a copy of the US Constitution went for $2.4m, doubling pre-sale estimates. Lincoln remains one of the country's most beloved presidents. He served between 1861 and 1865, operating as commander-in-chief during the US Civil War. His victory kept the country intact and stopped the South from seceding. He signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, eliminating slavery in the US. He was shot just a month into his second term.
CBS News
01-04-2025
- CBS News
Stolen painting of President George Washington recovered in Colorado after burglary
A historic painting of George Washington is back in proper hands more than a year after an art theft in Englewood. The painting, a valuable copy on reverse glass of a well-known image painted by American artist Gilbert Stuart, was turned over to Englewood police after a tip to Crime Stoppers. "I think this painting is amazing. It's really high quality," said Englewood Police Detective Christian Contos. The painting is done on glass, explained Monica Brown, managing director of fine arts for Freeman's | Hindman, an auction and appraisal company. Brown looked up the history of the painting and explained that the original was purchased by an American captain who took it to Guangzhou, China, in 1798. There unnamed Chinese artists created about 100 copies. He brought them back in the early 1800s and sold them when interest in patriotic-themed art was strong. Only about six are known to exist today. Four are in museums, and a couple of others are in private hands. "Chinese artists used the reverse glass painting technique, with large sheets of imported European glass as the canvas," explained Brown. The front is glass and smooth. Like a mirror, if the back were scratched, it could potentially be seen through on the other side. The value could vary widely on condition and whether it had much of a story to go with it Brown explained, like it had been owned by a famous person. But art and mementos of the Founding Fathers are solid sellers. "All of those founding fathers are very marketable. They're market darlings, you could almost say," she said. She thought the value at retail could range from $60,000 to $150,000. The painting had been stolen from a storage unit in an Englewood storage facility in January of 2024. The trail had gone cold. When he started pursuing the case, Contos was in new territory. "I'll preface that by saying this was the first art theft that I've ever worked," he said. He contacted the FBI's Art Crime team for advice. There were different avenues to pursue and clues to check on. The painting was added to the database at the National Stolen Art File. Art dealers and appraisers like Brown's firm check paintings through the database to ensure art is not stolen. Contos took information from the Crime Stoppers tip in which a person mentioned two names they said were associated with the missing painting and eventually had a phone conversation with a person who said he had the missing artwork. "He said he had had it for almost a year. That at the time he was staying in a hotel and a hotel employee gave him the painting saying they found it in a room abandoned that they were cleaning." But they didn't offer a lot. "They would not tell me where the hotel was or the person who worked for the hotel gave it to him." Contos wanted it back, but the person possessing it was worried about possibly being arrested. "That type of negotiation went on for like two weeks. Back and forth. Multiple phone calls, multiple texts," said Contos. The detective said he had no reason to doubt the story he got about the discovery of the painting in a hotel. There was no arrest when the painting was turned over to the police. It adds up to Brown as well. "If you're stealing something out of a storage unit, are you really thinking that you're going to find an expensive painting?" Brown wondered. It's possible the thief did not know its value and abandoned it after realizing the trouble it might be. Stolen art is not exactly something that can be easily posted for sale on the internet. "There certain art heists where the theory is that it would then go onto the black market, but it's not something that can trade publicly," she noted. Police say, fortunately, the artwork does not appear to have significant damage other than some frame damage. The painting's owner is thrilled said Contos. But technically, the painting now belongs to an insurance company that paid the owner a claim, and what happens to it will be up to the insurance company. Back in proper hands, it is now a painting with a story. And detective Contos said he liked the idea of getting his own copy of the work to put up in his office.
