First Moonwalker Neil Armstrong’s Private Collection to be Sold at Heritage Auctions, Heritage Auctions
“The vast personal collection of Neil Armstrong, who as the first man to walk on the moon changed the course of human history, will be presented in a series of auctions beginning November 1-2, 2018 by Heritage Auctions. The Armstrong Family CollectionTM will offer never-before-seen artifacts from his momentous lunar landing to private mementos — including pieces of a wing and propeller from the 1903 Wright Brothers flight that Armstrong took with him to the moon, a gold pin from Gemini VIII, Armstrong’s first mission, and historic correspondence about the planning that went into the moon mission. The auctions will coincide with the 50th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 mission.”
First Auction of Neil Armstrong's Private Collection to be Held Next Week
Comments are closed.
There are even auctioning up a little note (for $2.5k) he wrote to the Easter bunny as a child. It strikes me as a little desperate for $.
It’s amazing what some of the items are starting at. There’s a little segment of what appears to be a slice of the Kapton honeycomb going for $2.5k.
This all seems counter to what Neil would have done. I don’t think he would have approved.
Good timing given the burst of publicity from the movie. But given how the movie is failing at the box office I wonder if they will hit the prices they are asking.
This saddens me, to see memories & history turned into money. I am not philosophically opposed to the process generally…but it saddens me nonetheless. Private purchase of fossils saddens me in the same way.
Maybe the family has so many items that will probably sit in a box in a closet or attic. Might as well provide them to collectors who will take care of these extra items. For less famous families, many such items end up in the landfill.
Yes, itâs a pity some museum didnât step up to buy the collection, but most museums these days want everything donated and even then are picky about what they select. So selling to private collectors may be their own option to settle with the IRS.
I’m curious about what information you have on Armstrong leaving such a large estate that inheritance taxes are owed. The current minimum is about $5.5 million. Armstrong didn’t impress me as the sort who had this sort of wealth, but perhaps I’m wrong.
While Armstrong deserves a place as a pioneer in manned spaceflight, he became the first man to set foot on the moon because of a vast US government, military and industry project to make it so and the scheduling done in the NASA astronaut office. Deaths of 5 other US astronauts changed that schedule a lot. He was not like Charles Lindbergh who helped fund, design and build the Spirit of St Louis and then flew it solo to Paris.
Much of the respect that people have for Neil Armstrong is because of how he conducted himself both before and after the Moon landing. And he was held in very high regard by his fellow astronauts not only for his character, but also for his flying skills and for his ability to stay cool under pressure. And this is coming from a group that themselves operated at an exceedingly high level. The fact that circumstances put him into his high visibility role doesn’t change any of that.