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 The Doyle New York auction house said 18 lots of books, letters and
other ephemera sold for $23,844, far above the presale estimate of
less than $5,300. It said bids were made in its salesroom, on the
phone and on the Internet.
The 1992 Reagan letter, in which he says, "I never doubted communism
would eventually fail," took the top price at $3,750, including a
buyer's premium. It had been estimated at $300 to $500.
The second-priciest item was a 1991 thank you note in which Onassis
told Koch, "Your love of life is contagious and you sent everyone
home feeling a happiness and insouciance that does not happen every
day in dear old N.Y.C." The letter sold for $2,812.
A letter from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, also
sent in 1991, sold for $2,000. In it, Thatcher discussed
anti-Semitism in Croatia and affairs in Yugoslavia.
A group of about 50 letters from various political figures sold for
$2,375. In the lot was a letter from former Rep. Geraldine Ferraro,
a New Yorker who was the Democratic nominee for vice president in
1984. Before the Democrats' landslide defeat, she was dogged with
questions involving her husband's finances and told Koch, "When my
world was falling down around me and you took a couple of gratuitous
slaps at me, I don't remember you calling to explain."
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 Koch, who was mayor from 1978 to 1989, died in
February at age 88. The brash, opinionated Democrat was credited
with helping to save the city from its 1970s economic crisis.
A group of letters from U.S. vice presidents in which Al Gore calls
Koch "a great friend" sold for $563.
A collection of 48 letters from Cardinal John J. O'Connor, written
between 1990 and 1999, sold for $594. The two men co-wrote "His
Eminence and Hizzoner" in 1989. A signed copy of the book was
included with the letters.
In one letter, O'Connor told Koch that since Koch had been mayor for
12 years, "I will not do it any longer as the Archbishop of New
York." But when O'Connor died in 2000 he had been archbishop for 16
years.
Monday's sale was the second installment of Koch material to go on
the auction block. His furniture and artwork were sold at Doyle last
week. Among the highlights was a set of six Frank Lloyd
Wright-designed dining chairs that sold for more than $11,000.
[Associated
Press]
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