WASHINGTON — The American Red Cross is selling off decades’ worth of treasures to save money and help erase a big deficit.
The donated items being auctioned off include a 23-inch wax doll with her own Tiffany jewelry, a rare four-faced Cartier clock lamp and nurse uniforms from World War I.
Red Cross spokesman Roger Lowe says it’s a chance for people to buy a piece of Red Cross history and also help the group’s humanitarian mission.
What once was a collection of more than 135,000 objects, images, books and reels of film kept in a warehouse outside Washington is being drastically scaled back.
For the past two years, the charity whose core mission is disaster relief has been working feverishly to erase a $209 million operating deficit, a shortfall that now stands at $33.5 million.
