Via PFC Auctions

The medical vial containing dried bits of Ronald Reagan’s blood was removed from sale last night, says the British auction house that was attempting to sell the sanguinary bit of U.S. history.

PFC Auctions, which is based in Guernsey, reached an accord with the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, which operates Reagan’s library in Simi Valley, Calif. and had protested the auction.

Before being yanked off the block, bids on the vial, which was filled with Reagan’s blood at George Washington University Hospital in 1981 after he was shot by John Hinckley Jr., had risen to $30,864. A note accompanying the vessel said that it was obtained from a laboratory in Colombia, Md. that handled Reagan’s blood work following the assassination attempt. According to the letter, a woman who worked at the lab, after the analysis of Reagan’s blood was complete, asked her supervisors if she could take the vial home. It then passed into the possession of her son.

But PFC Auctions today provides an important new detail about the presidential ichor. It was actually sold once before, at a U.S. auction house in February for $3,550, according to an email from PFC spokeswoman Kylie Whitehead. That buyer, in turned, consigned the vial to the British auctioneer, apparently unaware that reselling it would offend the senses of the Reagan Foundation.

“I realized what an important artifact this was when bidding in the U.S. auction,” the consigner, who is remaining anonymous, said in a statement released by PFC Auctions. “I am a serious collector of presidential memorabilia, and have donated to museums before, and thought from the provenance supplied at the auction where I purchased, that the Reagan Foundation had no interest in the item.”

But after hearing the outrage from the Reagan Foundation, the consigner asked PFC to call off the auction and make preparations to turn the vial over to the museum, a move PFC calls a “considerable financial gesture.”

In a statement also released by PFC Auctions, John Heubusch, the Reagan Foundation’s executive director, sounded relieved. “We are very pleased with this outcome and wish to thank the consigner and PFC Auctions for their assistance in this matter,” he said. “While we contend that the removal of the vial from the hospital laboratory and the US auction sale in February 2012 were not legal acts in our opinion, we are grateful to the current custodian of the vial for this generous donation to the foundation ensuring President Reagan’s blood remains out of public hands.”