Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Bidding Begins for Onassis Heirlooms

The worldly goods of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were being sold in the “garage sale of the century” as well-heeled bidders at began snapping up everything once touched by a Kennedy. The first items sold, two hand-colored engravings of seashells, went for $6,000 plus a $900 commission--well over the $700 to $800 Sotheby’s auction house in New York expected they would bring. They were sold 35 seconds after the bidding began, to a man attending the auction who was not immediately identified. Even before the bidding at Sotheby’s began, the auction house received 70,000 bids by phone and fax from around the world. The estate sale was expected to fetch at least $4 million over four days ending Friday.