Heritage Auction Galleries - Auctions in The Media

Auctions in The Media

• In April 2005, Heritage offered the microphone used by long time The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson on the show. Inscribed “Johnny’s Mic… Not Ed’s… Not Fred’s”, this relic of late night TV sold for $50,787.50. Six months later, Carson’s desk from the show appeared in a subsequent Heritage auction and sold for $38,837.50.
• A twenty dollar bill, printed in error over a Del Monte Banana sticker realized $25,300 in a Heritage auction in January 2006.
• The Buddy Holly Collection, personal artifacts consigned to Heritage from Holly's wife Maria Elena, were offered in February 2006. A watch worn by Holly when his plane went down realized $155,350 in this auction.
• Peter Fonda's American flag patch from the movie Easy Rider sold for $89,625 in a 2007 Heritage Auction.

• In October 2007, Heritage sold the flight log of the Enola Gay’s navigator for $358,500.
• The largest four tusk mastodon skull ever found realized $191,200 in a January 2008 Heritage auction, benefiting the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton, TX.
• In February 2008, a collection of the earliest US cents, 301 coins assembled by collector Walter J. Husak and minted between 1793 and 1814, brought in $10.7 million.
• Heritage has sold two examples of the 1804 silver dollar. The Mickley-Hawn-Queller example, graded proof 62 NGC, realized $3,737,500 in April 2008, making it the third most valuable coin ever sold at auction according to A Guide Book of United States Coins. The Adams-Carter specimen, graded Proof 58 NGC, realized $2,300,000 in April, 2009.

• Capt. Nathan Harlan, a soldier stationed in Iraq, owned a first edition volume of The Federalist that he had found at a garage sale. Heritage waived its seller's commission because of Harlan's service. This book, originally estimated at $8,000-$12,000, realized $95,600 when the hammer finally fell in June, 2009.
• Heritage handled the estate of art collector Charles Martignette. The collection contained 4300 paintings from the likes of Alberto Vargas, Gil Elvgren, and Norman Rockwell.
• On July 25, 2009, Heritage Auctions sold a Double Derringer belonging to John Dillinger for $95,600, more than double the pre-auction estimate of $35,000-$45,000. Subsequently, Dillinger's sister's family consigned their keepsakes, including many iconic items, which were auctioned by Heritage in 2009 and 2010.
• A Babe Ruth game-used bat dating to the 1918 season sold in October 2009 for $537,750 in an auction held by Heritage Auctions. This bat served as the model for every future bat made for Ruth by the Hillerich & Bradsby factory.
• In January 2010, the Olson Specimen of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel was sold through Heritage Auctions for $3,737,500.
• In February, 2010, the highest CGC-graded copy of Detective Comics #27, the first Batman comic book, was offered in a Heritage Comic Books/Comic Art auction. It realized $1,075,500, the second highest price a comic book has ever been sold for (and the highest price ever at auction), more than tripling the previous auction record for any comic book. The entire auction realized almost $5.6 million, also an all-time record.
• In 2010, the Max Factor Family in collaboration with Heritage Auctions of Beverly Hills held sales of important items in their private collection featuring jewelry, artwork and silver. Proceeds from these sales were divided among several Los Angeles area organizations including a large endowment to benefit Beverly Hills High School's music program.
• Original artwork by Hugh Joseph Ward, a piece called 'The Evil Flame' from the cover of the August 1936 Spicy Mystery Stories, sold for $143,400, setting a record for the highest price ever realized for a pulp magazine cover in an August 2010 Heritage auction. In the same auction, pieces from Norman Saunders and Robert Fuqua also broke price records for the artists, at $50,788 and $27,485 respectively.
• A selection of John Wayne's memorabilia consigned by the actor's family brought more than $5.4 million in an October 2011 Heritage Auction. Wayne's beret from The Green Berets sold for $179,250, and a cowboy hat worn in Big Jake and The Cowboys sold for $119,500.
• A 1793 Chain Cent, the Eliasberg specimen, set a record for any United States copper coin when it sold for $1.38 million in an auction conducted by Heritage Auctions in January 2012.
• Seth Swirsky sold his 250 piece, historic collection of baseball memorabilia on May 3, 2012 through Heritage Auctions for close to 1.5 million dollars. The ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs in the 1986 World Series sold for $418,250. * A 75% complete Tarbosaurus which was alleged to have been illegally exported from Mongolia was sold, contingent on court approval, for $1,052,500 on May 20, 2012, alongside other possibly looted artifacts despite protests from the Mongolian government, an online petition against the sale, claims by paleontologists that it was stolen, and perhaps in violation of a court order. Heritage Auctions was reported to suggest it had proof of the dinosaur's legal importation. Heritage and the Government of Mongolia later jointly announced their cooperation in investigating the origin and ownership of the dinosaur.