A section of the Red Baron's aircraft skin is expected to make $80,000-120,000 at Bonhams New York.
It's one of the highlights of the Conflicts of the 20th Century sale on October 21.
 Baron von Richtofen was an ace German fighter pilot |
The lot features a Balkan cross and is believed to have come from the rudder of a plane the Baron (aka Manfred von Richtofen) flew in 1918.
Richtofen was a virtuosic German pilot who racked up 80 victories in aerial combat during the first world war. He was shot down in 1918.
It's accompanied by a letter of provenance from the consigner, which reads: "The World War German aircraft fabric with black cross, as represented in the photo [pasted] above, was presented in Germany to my husband, Col. Kimbrough Brown, by the family of the Baron Manfred Von Richthofen as a reciprocal gift when he presented the Baron's family with a copy of his book, Von Richthofen and the Flying Circus.
"In presenting the fabric to Col. Brown, the family informed him it had been taken from one of the Baron Richthofen's earlier fighter aircraft—not from his death plane."
The sale will also feature an M4 four-rotor Enigma machine that could set a new world record.
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