THE most famous window in American history continued to attract controversy last night after it emerged that its buyer in a $3m eBay sale did not have the money to complete the purchase.
A bidding frenzy erupted last week when it emerged that the window and surrounding wooden frame from which Lee Harvey Oswald is thought to have fired the shots that killed President John F Kennedy in 1963 was being sold on the online auction site.
A winning bid of $3,001,501 was posted by a Dutch-based buyer, known by the online handle r.seydel, just 22 seconds before the auction ended on Friday night, neatly circumventing strict rules on who was allowed to place an offer.
But Fred McLane, a business representative for the window's owner, Caruth Byrd, confirmed yesterday that the winner "didn't have the cash" to complete the sale. "This guy slipped into the bidding in the last minute," said McLane, "but he didn't have the money."
Last night, Byrd, who claimed he intended to give the sale proceeds to charity, said he would now work through the list of qualified bidders to see if any of them still wanted the window. "I said I'd take $2,750,000," Byrd said. "I don't know how it will turn out."
The window became one of eBay's most popular items. Within 24 hours of its launch on the auction site, more than 100 people were involved in a fiercely contested bidding battle. By the time the auction closed, 188 bids were counted, making it one of the biggest-ticket items ever on eBay.
The auction began at $100,000 and escalated within hours to a seven-figure sum. Thirty-two bids were either retracted by the bidder - including one for $17m - or cancelled by the seller because the bidder was not deemed to have the proper qualifications for the sale. The seller required bidders to have at least three eBay transactions on their record and at least a 97% approval rating. Due to the interest it was later demanded that bidders have 20 previous transactions and no less than a 98% approval rating.
Because the Dutch winner put his bid in late, there was no time for Byrd to cancel it.
Last night, a spokesman for eBay said people being unable to back their bids financially was not unusual. He said: "Unfortunately, on certain high-profile items this can happen. It's unfortunate. It's also illegal and considered fraud."
Despite the sale, doubts will remain over the window's authenticity. Byrd, a Texan rancher, said his father, D Harold Byrd, a wealthy oilman who owned the Texas School Book Depository, from where JFK was assassinated, removed the window a few weeks later because vandals were chipping pieces off it.
It was stored in the Byrd mansion for many years until his father's death in 1986, at which time it was taken to the town of Van and displayed at his son's ranch. Caruth Byrd later allowed the window to be displayed in the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, a memorial site located on two floors of the old depository building. It is believed Byrd intends to give any money raised from the sale to charity.
But Aubrey Mayhew, from Nashville, Tennessee, disputed his story and claimed the real window from which Oswald fired his rifle has been in her family's possession for more than 40 years after her father's purchase of the building.
• A rare bottle of Nazi wine complete with a portrait of Adolf Hitler on the label sold at auction in Plymouth yesterday for £3,995.
The 1943 bottle was from a collection understood to have been given to Hitler's officers during the Second World War.
