Two tickets to a play at Ford 's Theatre on the night of former US President Lincoln's assassination were auctioned for more than $260,000.
Two small rectangular tickets, with corners cut off at the entrance, are for the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre, Washington, USA, on April 14, 1865. The tickets are in section D of the theatre, with seats 41 and 42.
The owner of this ticket is said to have had a panoramic view of the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, as it was almost opposite where the Lincoln family sat watching the play. In a 2002 auction, they sold for $83,650. At last weekend's auction by Boston-based RR Auction, they sold for $262,500.
According to RR Auction, the ticket for the April 14, 1865 performance at Ford’s Theatre is extremely rare. Auction records show that no other tickets have been sold since the first sale in 2002.
Tickets to see a play at Ford's Theatre on the night of the assassination of former US President Lincoln on April 14, 1865. Photo: RR Auction
US President Lincoln was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth, 26, while he was watching a play. As a regular at the theater, Booth easily snuck up to the private balcony where Lincoln sat with his wife and an army major. Just as the audience was cheering at an interesting detail in the play, Booth took a pistol and aimed it at Lincoln's head and pulled the trigger. Lincoln died at the age of 56.
The assassination occurred at the end of the American Civil War between the Union and the Confederacy. After Lincoln was elected president in 1860, 11 slave states in the South declared their secession and formed the Confederacy. The remaining 25 states supported the government known as the Union.
After the assassination, Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, went into hiding for 12 days. He was finally shot dead by Union officer Boston Corbett while hiding in a barn in Virginia.
Painting depicting the moment Booth assassinated President Lincoln. Photo: Everett Collection Historical
Ngoc Anh (According to NY Post )
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