Letters Former Mayor Ed Koch Received From Dignitaries Sold At Auction
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) - Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch's letters and books are were sold at auction Monday for well above their estimated worth.
A letter in which former President Ronald Reagan says "I never doubted communism would eventually fail'' has drawn the highest bid at an auction of materials that belonged to Koch.
The Doyle New York auction house says the 1992 letter sold Monday for $3,750. Its worth had been estimated at $300 to $500.
The second-priciest item was a 1991 thank you note in which Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis told Koch, "Your love of life is contagious.''
The auction house says the roughly 200 letters, books and other ephemera on the block sold for $23,844, including a buyer's premium. Doyle had estimated the collection at less than $5,300.
Last week, the auction house sold furniture and artwork from Koch's home in Greenwich Village. The items auctioned off netted a total of $51,755, surpassing the pre-sale estimate of $20,115-30,690, Doyle New York said.
A set of six Frank Lloyd Wright-designed dining chairs sold for more than $11,000.
LINK: See The Full List Of Items Up For Auction
The Democrat was credited with helping to save the city from its 1970s economic crisis and leading it to financial rebirth.
Koch died in February at age 88.
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