Washington/Lafayette medal sells for $5.3 million
Michigan
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Price estimates of 4 to 8 million were correct.
A gold medal that was created for George Washington and presented to the Marquis de Lafayette was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Manhattan on Tuesday for a record $5.3 million, and will remain in France after residing there for 183 years.
The enameled patriotic badge was bought by the Fondation Josée et René de Chambrun at the Château La Grange, Lafayette’s historic home 60 miles east of Paris.
The medal, made for members of the Society of the Cincinnati, a legendary group of Revolutionary War officers, “is a symbol of French-American friendship, and there are only two places where it should reside — La Grange and Mount Vernon,” said Christophe Van de Weghe, a Manhattan gallery owner who was the bidder for the Fondation Chambrun at Sotheby’s. He was referring to Washington’s historic residence in Virginia.
The medal will be available to the public by appointment at Chateau La Grange “as soon as Sotheby’s gets it there,” he said, adding that “the Fondation would be happy to make the medal available on temporary loan to Mount Vernon, so the American public can see it as well.”
James C. Rees, executive director of George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Virginia — where President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met on Nov. 7 — said, “We did not bid for it, since it was way above our price range.”
He added: “But I am pretty thrilled and honored to display the medal for a week or a year or 10 years, whatever they would agree to.”
The hammer price of $4.7 million after the spirited 11-minute auction — to which Sotheby’s added its premium or commission — “was astonishing, 10 times the record public price for a medal,” said Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director of the American Numismatic Society in Manhattan.
She said the medal’s provenance, and the connection with Washington and Lafayette, accounted for the price at the auction, which was timed for the 250th anniversary of Lafayette’s birth.
The medal was consigned to Sotheby’s by Lafayette’s great-great granddaughter, the Baronne Meunier du Houssoy. The medal was created for George Washington in 1783 in Paris by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the Continental Army commander who ultimately designed the street plan for Washington, D.C.
Inherited by Martha Washington after her husband’s death in 1799, the medal was passed on to her adopted daughter, then given to Lafayette in 1824 during his triumphal 13-month, 6,000-mile tour of America.
A gold medal that was created for George Washington and presented to the Marquis de Lafayette was auctioned at Sotheby’s in Manhattan on Tuesday for a record $5.3 million, and will remain in France after residing there for 183 years.
The enameled patriotic badge was bought by the Fondation Josée et René de Chambrun at the Château La Grange, Lafayette’s historic home 60 miles east of Paris.
The medal, made for members of the Society of the Cincinnati, a legendary group of Revolutionary War officers, “is a symbol of French-American friendship, and there are only two places where it should reside — La Grange and Mount Vernon,” said Christophe Van de Weghe, a Manhattan gallery owner who was the bidder for the Fondation Chambrun at Sotheby’s. He was referring to Washington’s historic residence in Virginia.
The medal will be available to the public by appointment at Chateau La Grange “as soon as Sotheby’s gets it there,” he said, adding that “the Fondation would be happy to make the medal available on temporary loan to Mount Vernon, so the American public can see it as well.”
James C. Rees, executive director of George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens in Virginia — where President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy met on Nov. 7 — said, “We did not bid for it, since it was way above our price range.”
He added: “But I am pretty thrilled and honored to display the medal for a week or a year or 10 years, whatever they would agree to.”
The hammer price of $4.7 million after the spirited 11-minute auction — to which Sotheby’s added its premium or commission — “was astonishing, 10 times the record public price for a medal,” said Ute Wartenberg Kagan, executive director of the American Numismatic Society in Manhattan.
She said the medal’s provenance, and the connection with Washington and Lafayette, accounted for the price at the auction, which was timed for the 250th anniversary of Lafayette’s birth.
The medal was consigned to Sotheby’s by Lafayette’s great-great granddaughter, the Baronne Meunier du Houssoy. The medal was created for George Washington in 1783 in Paris by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the Continental Army commander who ultimately designed the street plan for Washington, D.C.
Inherited by Martha Washington after her husband’s death in 1799, the medal was passed on to her adopted daughter, then given to Lafayette in 1824 during his triumphal 13-month, 6,000-mile tour of America.
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