Custer Flag Auctioned

From Dec. 10, 2012, WDET, Detroit, Michigan.

The Detroit Institute of Art has sold a rare George Custer flag that was at the Little Big Horn for $2.2 million.

It was one of five flags with Custer that day, and the only one to survive.  A burial detail a few days after the massacre was at the site and Sgt. Ferdinand Culbertson discovered the tattered swallow-tail guidon under a dead soldier.  He picked it up and later brought it home.

In 1895, the Detroit Institute of Art bought it for $54.  The flag was appraised at $5 million and was bought by a private American collector.  It was sold to raise money for the museum's operation.

Too Bad a Private Collector Bought It As This Is an Artifact That the General Public Should Be Able to See.  --DaCoot