Auction of Ronald Reagan's Blood Canceled
After an unexplained change of heart, the anonymous seller will now donate the vial to the former president's foundation.
| Posted Thursday, May 24, 2012, at 12:47 PM
This photo taken on April, 03, 1981 shows President Reagan with Mrs Nancy Reagan inside George Washington University Hospital four days after the assassination attempt on him
Photo by Mike Evens/AFP/Getty Images.
UPDATE: Tough luck, creepy collectors. Looks like you won't be able to buy a vial of Ronald Reagan's blood after all.
The much-reported on auction for a vial containing "residue" of the former president's blood has been canceled, CNN reports. The vial will instead be donated to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Bidding for the vial had exceeded $30,000 by the time the auction was called off..
It's not exactly clear what prompted the unnamed seller's change of heart, although the foundation's threat of a lawsuit probably had something to do with it. "I was a real fan of Reaganomics and felt that Pres. Reagan himself would rather see me sell it rather than donating it," he/she had previously written when discussing the foundation's request that the vial be donated.
Tuesday, May 22: Move over, Scarlett Johansson's dirty tissue. There's a new bodily-fluid laden celebrity item on the auction block: a vial of Reagan's blood. Or, more specifically, a vial that contains "residue" of the Gipper's blood.
And, as you'd expect, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and others are none too pleased with the whole thing.
Reuters explains that the anonymous seller acquired the vial from his or her mother, who took it from Bio-Science Laboratories, which did the blood testing for George Washington Hospital. The blood in the vial was reportedly collected shortly after the 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan's life.
The labeled vial, which contains "blood residue," is being auctioned off with a form from the laboratory According to the seller, both were taken with permission after testing was complete. The auction house is based on Gurnsey in the British Channel Islands.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation called the impending sale a "craven act," and pledged to "use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase," according to the BBC. Bidding has topped £7,000, with the online auction scheduled to end Thursday.
The seller claims to have contacted the Reagan National Library to see if they'd like to purchase the vial. In the auction description, he or she notes that the library asked him to donate the vial, to which he replied "that I was a real fan of Reaganomics and felt that Pres. Reagan himself would rather see me sell it rather than donating it.” According to Reuters, the Reagan Foundation declined to verify that this exchange happened.
