A vial said to be of President Reagan's blood and a lab slip.
The Ronald
Reagan Presidential Foundation has expressed outrage at British firm
PFC Auctions for seeking to auction off what it says
is a tube containing
the dried substance, taken after a 1981 assassination attempt.
Ronald Reagan’s
Blood: A Civil Relic with a Difference (El Pais,
Spain)
“This not the
first time – nor will it be the last – that civil relics have been for sale.
But the United States lacks the saints whose alleged remains have been saved
through the centuries in Europe. To indulge their fetishism, they have to opt
for newer remains. … Perhaps in the future, it could be used to clone the
president who embodied neoliberalism. But then again,
in the light of what is happening today, that might not be such a good idea.”
By Marcos Balfagon
Translated By Florizul
Acosta-Perez
May 24, 2012
Spain
- El Pais - Original Article (Spanish)
An online auction house [PFC Auctions] based on the island of Guernsey, a British tax
haven, has put up the “for sale sign” for a vial of blood that supposedly came
from Ronald Reagan. According to the seller, the sample, now dried out, was
taken on March, 30, 1981 at the hospital in Washington that the-then president
was taken to in the moments after he was wounded at the hands of a madman. Of
course, the news has angered the Reagan family, and through its foundation,
denies the authenticity of the sample, as does the U.S. medical profession.
[Editor’s
Note: The description of the blood sample
on the auction house Auctions posted on its Web
Site late last week says in part:
PFC Auctions
announces that it made contact yesterday evening with The Ronald Reagan
Presidential Foundation regarding the Auctioning of the Ronald Reagan
laboratory blood vial. What has not been widely reported is that the auction
consignor purchased the item at a public auction in the USA in February 2012
for $3,550. Bidding on the PFC Auctions website
currently stands at $30,086, and we have negotiated with the consignor to
arrange for the item to be withdrawn from the auction and donated to the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Foundation, a considerable financial gesture from the
consignor.
The 5” glass
vial with a half inch diameter has a green rubber stopper. Dried blood residue
from President Reagan (1911-2004) can be seen clearly in the vial with a
quarter-inch ring of blood residue at the end of the inserted rubber stopper.
A 3˝” x 1”
white label has been affixed to the vial. It is printed, in purple ink, “REAGAN
RONALD 940029 THOR / 610892572 AARON PRESIDENTIAL / SUITE 3/30/81 M 2/02/11
JAP.” 940029 was Reagan’s patient ID. AARON refers to Benjamin L. Aaron who was
Chief of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at George Washington University
Hospital where Reagan was in the Presidential Suite. THOR refers to thoracic.
Reagan was admitted on March 30 1981 and M refers to male. The President’s date
of birth is incorrectly stated as “2/02/11” when his actual date of birth is
February 6 1911.
This not the
first time – nor will it be the last – that civil relics have been for sale. As
mentioned by the magazine The Atlantic, the United States lacks the
saints whose alleged remains have been saved through the centuries in Europe -
nor has it an officially-recognized church to protect them. To indulge their
fetishism, they have to opt for newer remains. The blood-stained sheets of
assassinated President Lincoln are preserved, as is the blood-spattered dress
Jackie Kennedy wore as her husband was killed in Dallas.
Neither are Europeans free of such obsessions, not
because they preserve the relics of saints, but because they continue to
preserve the penis
of Napoleon Bonaparte – and not long ago, the tooth of John Lennon sold for a healthy price [$31,000].
The small
test tube with the alleged dried blood of Reagan (who died in 2004) has been
put for sale by the son of a laboratory employee, also deceased, that provided
services to the George Washington University Hospital, where the president
underwent surgery after being shot. The seller didn’t want to donate the blood
to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation that, according to the seller,
threatened to alert the FBI.
When exiled emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821
doctors performed an autopsy with witnesses including a priest
named Ange Vignali. The body was sold intact after the autopsy,
but the penis was found to be missing. In 1916, Vignali’s heirs
attempted to sell a collection of Napoleonic artifacts including
his penis. No one knows if it is really his, but it was most recently
sold to a New Jersey urologist, Dr. John Kingsley Lattimer, for
$3,000 – in 1977. He claims to have turned down offers as
high as $100,000.
[Photo Courtesy of Flavor Wire, U.S.]
"I was a
real fan of Reaganomics and felt that President Reagan himself would rather see
me sell it rather than donating it,” assures the seller on the auction Web page
in a text illustrated with a picture of the glass vial. In fact, yesterday, the
bidding price in the auction that closes today had risen to over €11,000
[$13,800], after it started at €1,800 [$2,250].
Perhaps in
the future, it could be used to clone the president who embodied neoliberalism. But then again, in the light of what is
happening today, that might not be such a good idea.
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