I recall a JFK humi with cigars sold at Christie's in the last several years for a bunch of money.
Found this....
The $574,500 cigar humidor that once belonged to John F. Kennedy is probably destined for a super-secure life behind glass overlooking Park Ave.
"It may go over there," said cigar maven Marvin Shanken, pointing to the southwest corner of his Manhattan office yesterday.
Of course, he'll put real cigars in it, he emphasized.
Shanken, owner of Cigar Aficionado magazine and a string of wine publications, walked away with what an auction expert called "the smartest purchase" of the first night of the auction of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' posessions.
The proud new owner said he'll probably have "a special case" with highly secure locks built to protect the walnut humidor measuring 121/2 inches high, 121/2 inches long and 13 inches wide that comedian Milton Berle gave to Kennedy as an inaugural gift in 1960.
The box is inscribed: "Good Health. Good Smoking. Milton Berle, January 20, 1961."
Shanken, 52, said he already owns 100 antique humidors including one that had been owned by actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
Noting he was a New Haven volunteer in Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign, Shanken said he "admired, if not worshiped" the martyred President, and felt he was buying "a piece of history."
Shanken, who also has a $100,000 bottle of 1784 Chateau Margaux wine and valuable French posters, said he's now on the lookout for a cigar memento from another legendary cigar smoker, Winston Churchill.
"It was a very, very shrewd purchase," said Art & Auction magazine editor Bruce Wolmed, "because he's gotten himself a fabulous marketing tool."
A Sotheby's spokeswoman, meanwhile, said singer Jimmy Buffett was "ecstatic" over his $43,700 purchase of a Jamie Wyeth lithograph of Kennedy in a sailboat and a $9,200 catalogue of books in the White House Library during Kennedy's term.
Other successful bidders include rug importer Robert Hakimi of Brookville, L.I., who paid $43,000 for a 19th century Victorian needlepoint rug that graced the Oval Room on the second floor of the White House during the Kennedy years.
The 8-by-71/2-foot crimson and ivory floral rug will be displayed in Hakimi's Westbury, L.I., store and then transferred to his home for his parents' pleasure before making the rounds of public exhibitions, said Hakimi, 29, whose parents emigrated from Iran.
"It's a piece of American history that I'm going to have in our family as an heirloom," he said. "My mom remembers the day he was assassinated. It was a very sad day."
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