Like Custer, the Flag didn't live up to expectations as to what would happen when it faced its destiny.
Instead of an estimated 2-5 Million, it was sold for $1.9 Million. Still pretty respectable for a history- (and blood-) soaked cloth.
Perhaps the lower price is an appropriate result as the DIA didn't get as much money as it hoped it would from the sale, and now may be able to buy less kitsch as a result when it could instead have made a fantastic exhibit that would have rallied around this flag.
The Detroit Free Press: Custer flag auctioned for $1.9 million
A military flag that accompanied Gen. George Armstrong Custer into the Battle of the Little Big Horn and was owned for 115 years by the Detroit Institute of Arts sold for a hammer price of $1.9 million at auction today at Sotheby’s in New York
It is stil a shame that the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum sold the flag off rather than at the very least arranging to place it in Michigan's Capitol Rotunda with the other flags that honor Michigan's past military units and their soldiers.
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