GOLDEN OLDIES

An Olympic memorabilia auction the other night drew collectors from around the world to bid for winners’ medals, officials’ badges and other items.

A gold medal from the 1912 Stockholm Olympics went for $3,750. A 1932 Lake Placid participation medal brought $3,500. For $1,300, a bidder walked away with a silver gymnastics winner’s plaque from the second modern Olympics, in Paris in 1900.

Bernth Ahlstroem of Geneva, Switzerland, added about a dozen new pieces to his collection, including a letter from Baron Pierre de Coubertin, written in March of 1924, to the Dutch national committee president inviting him to participate in that year’s Olympics in Paris. Ahlstroem paid $2,700 for the letter.

The costliest medal sold was a gold from the 1936 Berlin Games. It brought $18,500.