Associated Press - Wild West items auctioned
Wild West items auctioned
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) _ Harrisburg is reaping a paltry reward so far from sales of artifacts intended for a Wild West museum that never got off the ground, City Council leaders said.
Two nationally advertised auctions of artifacts _ one in November and the other in June _ have netted $1.7 million for the city.
Mayor Stephen Reed is estimated to have spent $7.2 million in nontax city money on items that included a Gatling gun and a Wells Fargo coach.
Reed, without telling City Council, was collecting the material for a National Museum of the Old West he wanted to build in Harrisburg. The idea stalled and Reed finally agreed to sell the artifacts to fill a hole in the municipal budget.
Council president Linda Thompson said she didn't see much value in the hundreds of remaining items in storage at a city warehouse.
``Some of the stuff reminds me of the things I saw in my grandmother's attic 50 years ago,'' Thompson said in Thursday's editions of The Patriot-News of Harrisburg.
Dan Miller, the council's vice president, said officials may need to prepare for a $5 million loss.
The city has used the auction proceeds to repay a $7.2 million loan that was taken out to plug a budget deficit in 2006.
The first auction raised $1.3 million, but the second was less successful because it was dominated by documents and American Indian artifacts that were less valuable to collectors.
Reed said the artifact sales also reflected ``one of the worst artifacts markets since the Great Depression,'' but added that he deliberately held back some items to generate a buzz among collectors at a future sale.
``You don't put all your primo stuff out there first,'' Reed said.
Reed said he planned to auction off the roughly 2,000 remaining items _ a mixture of artifacts linked to Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday and lower-value trinkets _ as one group. He declined to say how much he thought the items would fetch, or whether the grand total would offset the $7 million he spent to buy the artifacts.