Kennedy Auction Flops

An auction of John F. Kennedy memorabilia opened Wednesday, but some items were withdrawn to settle disputes with the National Archives and Kennedy's children, and some valuable lots went unsold. The sale at New York's Guernsey's auction house was sparsely attended, and several of the highest-priced items (which carried only "estimate upon request" designations) failed to sell. These included a Tiffany & Co. Cuban missile crisis calendar paperweight. An asking bid of $300,000 dropped to $100,000 but still failed to draw any interest. The evening's top seller was the Presidential yacht, the Honey Fitz, which fetched $5.4 million from an unidentified telephone bidder.