Little Bighorn flag sold for $2.2 million auction; was bought for $54 in 1895

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The only U.S. flag not captured or lost during George Armstrong Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn in southeastern Montana sold at auction Friday for $2.2 million.

The buyer was identified by the New York auction house Sotheby's as an American private collector. Frayed, torn, and with possible bloodstains, the flag had been valued before its sale at up to $5 million.

The 7th U.S. Cavalry flag — known as a “guidon” for its swallow-tailed shape — had been the property of the Detroit Institute of Arts, which paid just $54 for it in 1895.

“We'll be using the proceeds to strengthen our collection of Native American art, which has a rather nice irony to it I think,” said the Detroit museum's director, Graham Beal.

Custer and more than 200 troopers were massacred by Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors in the infamous 1876 battle. Of the five guidons carried by Custer's battalion only one was immediately recovered, from beneath the body of a fallen trooper.

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