Historic military and firearms auction in Ohio grosses $750,000

An historic military and firearms auction of nearly 700 war time rarities in suburban Cleveland grossed $750,000 last month.

Milestone Auctions Co-owner Miles King said the event, held Jan. 29, attracted the most bid sign-ups ever for the auction house.

“A lot of gun collectors came to the preview and really enjoyed handling the old guns and studying how they were put together,” he said. “There were many new customers who had never bid in our sales before and more bidders than usual participating at the high end. We were very pleased.”

Milestone Auctions said its top-selling gun, a Springfield M1-D Garand Sniper rifle bought in 1996 from the Army’s Division of Civilian Marksmanship, raked in $7,200. The rifle came sealed in its original packaging with all accessories.

An Enfield P53 .577 three-band 1862 rifle identified as belonging to Ransom Tifft of the 18th Massachusetts Infantry, fetched $6,300 — well above its $1,500 estimate.

Some of the auction’s more high-profile items — a 1936 Mercedes Benz  170V coupe owned by  Nazi Dr. Rudolph Beuring and John Wayne’s silver Smith & Wesson revolvers, holsters and spurs sold at $42,000 and $4,400, respectively.

Hitler’s custom made oak and leather “million dollar” desk and matching chair didn’t sell for anything close to $1 million, as its nickname suggests. The winning bid came in below estimates at just $29,000.  The desk, a gift from a Romanian monarch in 1929, the U.S. Army seized the pieces from Hitler’s Munich residence, which still feature the stamp “US Property and United States Forces European Theater Headquarters.”

The post Historic military and firearms auction in Ohio grosses $750,000 appeared first on Guns.com.