Lindbergh’s Iconic Aviator Cap Goes Unsold at Paris Auction

PARIS (AP) —
The leather cap of Captain Charles Lindbergh, at the Drouot auction house in Paris, on Wednesday.(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
The leather cap of Captain Charles Lindbergh, at the Drouot auction house in Paris, on Wednesday.(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

The iconic aviation cap worn by Charles Lindbergh during his famed 1927 trans-Atlantic flight to France went on the auction block Wednesday but failed to sell.

Bidding on the floppy brown leather cap that buttons around the chin reached 52,000 euros ($55,505) – below the minimum set price of 60,000 euros ($64,000) – the Druout auction house said.

(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Pre-auction estimates for what was billed as an exceptional sale went as high as $86,000.

The aviator cap was discovered by a Parisian family in their garden days after the 25-year-old Lindbergh flew his plane solo from New York to Le Bourget in the Paris suburbs. Auctioneer Nicholas Couvrand said the cap had fallen off during a later flight when Lindbergh did “a loop” in the air.

The cap kept Lindbergh warm during the grueling 33-hour air voyage that propelled the previously unknown air mail pilot to international fame.

Charles Lindbergh standing in front of his plane "Spirit of St. Louis" at Roosevelt Field in New York, before his historic transatlantic flight on May 20, 1927. (AP-Photo)
Charles Lindbergh standing in front of his plane “Spirit of St. Louis” at Roosevelt Field in Long Island, before his historic transatlantic flight on May 20, 1927. (AP-Photo)

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