Historic Tickets to Show Where Lincoln Was Assassinated Sell for $262,500 at Auction

Two tickets to the show where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated have sold at auction for $262,500.

The green top-tier tickets to “Our American Cousin” at the historic Ford’s Theatre in D.C. on April 14, 1865, were originally 75 cents each.

The tickets sold for double the expected price at the RR Auction in Boston on Saturday.

The Washington Post reports, “The tickets were for prime front-row seats on the second-level — Nos. 41 and 42 D in the theater’s dress circle the night of April 14, 1865. The show featured British actress Laura Keene in the comedy ‘Our American Cousin.’”

During that show, Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth.

The owner of the tickets at the time of auction had initially purchased them for $83,650 in 2002 — but their identity is being kept anonymous.

“The original owners of the tickets are unknown. The seller of the tickets Saturday was a manuscript collector from Southern California, who asked to be anonymous, RR Auction said,” according to the Post report. “Bobby Livingston, executive vice president of RR Auction, would say only that buyer is one of the world’s top collectors of Americana.”

Just hours before the assassination, Lincoln signed legislation establishing the Secret Service.

Other items included in Saturday’s auction were a first edition book signed by Lincoln that contained his 1858 debates with U.S. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, which sold for $593,750, and a Riggs bank check for $5 that Lincoln made out to his valet, which sold for $100,000.