Friday, October 02, 2009 — Beginning in November and continuing into February 2010, Heritage Auction Galleries will auction off more than 150 historical objects in the American Red Cross collection.

The Red Cross will continue to keep the best and most historically significant art and objects for its collection as it seeks to reduce storage expenses.

Other Red Cross pieces, including artwork and objects, will be sold as part of several auction events: Historical Americana, Vintage Stamps, Decorative Arts, Civil War Artifacts and Illustration Art.

This is a way for others to own a piece of Red Cross history while helping the organization carry out its mission today.

Highlights of the collection being sold include:

• A four-faced Cartier clock lamp.
• A Sèvres compote given to the Red Cross in 1937 by Albert Lebrun, then president of France.
• Vintage original Christmas Seals and assorted international stamps.
• A grouping of more than 75 original Red Cross illustrations, featuring examples by Haddon Sundblom, Anna Milo Upjohn, John White Alexander, Walter Beech Humphrey, Haskell Coffin and Pal Fried.

All auction proceeds will go into the Red Cross general fund, which helps the organization carry out its humanitarian mission.

Assessing the Red Cross Collection
The auction is a result of cost-cutting measures over the past two years. Specifically, the Red Cross closed the warehouse facility that housed the many gifts, books, posters, art and other objects it had accumulated over its long and storied history.

Before closing the facility, the Red Cross thoroughly evaluated each item in order to determine which items should be retained, sent to the National Archives as part of a regular archiving process or offered for auction. Sotheby’s, Inc. provided their pro bono services to the Red Cross, spending many hours in a painstaking examination of the collection.

The most significant art and objects are preserved and were kept with the Red Cross or the National Archives. The Red Cross also retained all donated historical items that were designated to remain in the arts and objects collection. Examples of items kept by the Red Cross include paintings by Norman Rockwell, Howard Chandler Christie and Henry O. Tanner, a well-known African-American artist whose works are in the collections of the National Museum of American Art and the White House.

Items sent to the National Archives include Junior Red Cross materials; many uniforms, flags and other assorted gifts and textiles; private collections from World War I to Korea; and Red Cross publications. The Red Cross and the general public have continued access to these materials.

About the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.