NEW YORK (AP) — A long-forgotten World War II statue ofthe famous flag-raising at Iwo Jima that
had been expected to sell foras much as $1.8 million was passed on by bidders in an auction onFriday.Bidding
for the 12 1/2-foot-tall sculpture of the 1945flag-raising reached as high as $950,000, below the
undisclosed minimumsales price, Bonhams auction house said."We’re a littledisappointed with what
happened with the sculpture," Bonhams MaritimeArt Department sales specialist Gregg K. Dietrich
said.Three potential buyers placed competing bids for four or five minutes, Dietrich said.The sculpture’s
owner, military historian and collector Rodney Hilton Brown, did not wish to discuss the results of the
auction.Dietrichsaid prospective buyers could purchase the sculpture through Bonhams,which will negotiate a
price on the seller’s behalf.History buffshave fawned over the sculpture, a miniature of the
familiar32-foot-tall bronze Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Va. Thatsculpture, designed by Felix de
Weldon, was patterned after a PulitzerPrize-winning Associated Press image of the Feb. 23, 1945,
flag-raisingby Marines and a Navy Corpsman on Iwo Jima’s Mount Suribachi.Thesmaller sculpture was largely
forgotten about for more than four decadesafter de Walden placed it in the back of his studio, covering it
with atarp. That’s where Brown found it in 1990 while researching a book onde Weldon. It was in desperate
need of restoration.Brown boughtthe 5-ton monument, paying for it with cash and two peculiar
collectors’items: a Stradivarius violin and a silver Newport yachting trophy fromthe 1920s.In 1995, Brown
presented a restored version of thestatute to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on the 50thanniversary
of the Battle of Iwo Jima.Brown said earlier this month he wanted to sell the sculpture because "it
doesn’t fit in my living room.""I want to find it a good home," he said, "so we can pass
the flag onto somebody else."Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.