Kennedy family heirlooms 'stolen from auction house'

Heirlooms belonging to the Kennedy family dynasty – including a Father’s Day card from JFK Junior to the former president and a letter from the Queen – were stolen from a top auction house in New York, it emerged today.

An employee has been arrested in connection with the theft of about €90,000 worth of JFK memorabilia from Sotheby’s.

Patrick Gallagher allegedly took the 35 items from the auction house’s Manhattan warehouse and sold them to a friend for less than €4,500.

The trinkets included a 1963 Father’s Day card presented to President Kennedy by his then two-year-old son. The president was assassinated just months later.

A letter from the Queen to President and Jacqueline Kennedy, congratulating them on the birth of their son, was also among the alleged heist.

It was also claimed Gallagher made off with limited edition copies of JFK’s inaugural address.

Gallagher, 50, was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.

At a court hearing last night, prosecutors alleged that Gallagher, from the New York borough of Queens, stole the items to pay off gambling debts.

Sotheby’s said the items, worth a reported €90,000, had been recovered.

JFK Junior, his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister Lauren died in a plane crash off Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.

His personal belongings went to his older sister, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, who sent most of them to the warehouse for storage.

Sotheby’s vice president Diana Phillips said: “We were contacted by law enforcement authorities who informed us that an employee of Sotheby’s, who was Patrick Gallagher, had allegedly stolen some private material that the Kennedy family were storing with us.

“We believe that all of the material has been recovered.”

She added: “The employee has been suspended while the investigation is ongoing.”