The Miami Herald,
February 18, 2002.
Cuba map linked to JFK finds new route to Miami
By elaine de valle. Edevalle@herald.com.
For sale: An old color map of Cuba, circa 1962. In good condition -- except
for some handwritten notes on the front and back.
Price: $750,000.
See, the notes reportedly were written by President John F. Kennedy on Oct.
16, 1962, when he was told there were Soviet missiles on the communist-ruled
island.
Nine X's mark the spots where the missiles were thought to be -- near Bahia
Honda and Guanajay, both west of Havana. The words ''missile sites'' are
underlined twice and surrounded by arrows. On the back, in the same black ink,
Kennedy doodled some words, apparently from his discussion that day with his 12
top advisors: ''NATO,'' ''Cuba,'' ''Reconnaissance,'' and "hoping to
intercept.''
The map is being sold by a dealer in historic memorabilia in
Washingtonville, N.Y. And he thinks he can find a buyer in Miami -- someone who
will treasure it, said the dealer, Gary J. Zimet.
''I'm sure with the large Cuban community, this would have especially great
interest,'' he said. "It should go to a good home, someone who'll
appreciate and take care of it.''
Zimet is selling the map for the second time.
''I sold it to a client about three years ago and am now selling it on his
behalf. He's looking to divest himself of some of his fine-arts holdings,'' said
Zimet, president of momentsintime.com, which sells autographs, letters,
manuscripts, signed photographs and other historic documents.
Items on Zimet's website include a book of poems reportedly written by The
Doors frontman Jim Morrison about a month before his death ($500,000); a check
seemingly signed by mobster Meyer Lansky on July 1, 1938, payable to a Dr.
Tishler for $35.50 ($850), and a two-page letter written and signed by Sigmund
Freud on his Berggassel Vienna stationery in 1936 ($5,750).
Last year, Zimet's outfit sold the album signed by John Lennon to Mark
Chapman five hours before Chapman shot Lennon dead in 1980. It fetched $460,000,
Zimet said.
BIG TICKET
But the map is his big-ticket item.
''In all modesty, it's about the best damn thing I've ever sold,'' he said.
He said his client asked him not to divulge how much it sold for three years
ago.
''I can't overstress the importance of the piece. It's unarguably the best
Kennedy autograph that has ever been for sale,'' said Zimet, who gets a 15
percent "buyer's premium.''
Zimet acknowledges that the piece probably belongs in a museum, such as the
Florida International Museum in St. Petersburg, home of the world's largest
private collection of John F. Kennedy artifacts. Exhibits feature such objects
as a rocking chair used by Kennedy in the Oval Office, a pen Kennedy used to
sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the slain president's prescription
sunglasses.
In fact, the man who amassed the collection at the museum -- much of which
was bequeathed to him by Evelyn Lincoln, Kennedy's personal secretary -- was
Robert White, a collector of Kennedy memorabilia and the one who originally had
the map. He sold it to a collector, who later sold it to Zimet.
Zimet said the map, which he says White told him was prepared by the CIA,
was probably given to Lincoln by Kennedy himself. "In addition to being his
secretatry, she was his confidante, and he gave her many, many artifacts, highly
important ones over the years.''
The museum in St. Petersburg would be happy to have it, said Sharon Jackson,
a vice president of sales. "It would fit nicely with either our JFK exhibit
or our Cuban missile exhibits.''
But, alas, the museum does not buy -- it takes donations.
Jackson said there would not be many people who knew about the map to
authenticate it. "That would be something that would come under defense or
security or something. That would have been classified top secret, I'm sure.
Research on it would be futile.''
DOCUMENTATION
But it does come with a documentation letter from White, who said he got
confirmation from a former CIA topographer who said it was definitely prepared
by the agency. He believes Zimet's map is the same one he had -- and now rues
the day he got rid of it.
''I would have rather kept it with the Cuban Missile Crisis material I
collect,'' White said. He said it would have gone nicely with a magnifying glass
Kennedy reportedly used to check out the fine print. But it was rather large and
he didn't have a place for it.
"At that time, I didn't have any prospect of a museum.''
What he did have was a very eager client who ''just drove me crazy about
selling it to him.'' So he did. "It was basically a family decision to sell
it.''
He won't say what he got for it. But he did say it was a popular item. "Everybody
that saw it loved it and wanted it.''
When told Zimet was seeking three-quarters of a cool million, White gasped.
''Oh, my God! That's nowhere near the value I placed on it back in 1996,'' he
said. "I would have loved to have gotten that.''
Does he think it will fetch that sum? "It might. . . . People pay $3
million for a baseball.''
Members of the Cuban American National Foundation would like to hang the map
at the Freedom Tower when the restoration of the building -- itself historic for
different reasons -- is complete.
But the influential lobby won't shell out the cash.
''If he would like to donate it to us, we would love to display it,'' said
executive director Joe Garcia. "But I can think of a lot of other things
that, with $750,000, can be more useful for the struggle for a free Cuba.''
Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban
and Cuban American studies, would also love it -- but not at that price.
'ENOUGH MAPS'
''Number one, the university isn't going to spend that kind of money. Number
two, we got enough maps,'' Suchlicki said. "I don't know that anybody would
pay that kind of money for that thing without Kennedy's signature.''
But he has a counteroffer: "I'll give him $50 right now to hang it in
my office.''
Stone sets sights on Cuba
Posted on Sat, Feb. 16, 2002
Oliver Stone is in Cuba to research a possible documentary about the island,
a producer with the project said.
The 55-year-old director arrived in Havana Wednesday night and planned to
stay for a week, producer Fernando Sulichin told The Associated Press. He
offered no additional details.
Stone, who won Academy Awards for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July,
met President Fidel Castro during a 1987 visit to Havana for the screening of
one of his earlier films, Salvador.
Stone's other credits include JFK, Nixon, The Doors, Natural Born Killers,
Wall Street and Any Given Sunday, which was filmed in Miami. |