When the World Trade Center was destroyed in September, many treasures were lost. We previously wrote about the Helen Keller archives (original letters and photos) http://www.auctionbytes.com/pages/abn/y02/m01/i03/s04, and of course there were many pieces of artwork and sculpture on display in the businesses housed at the WTC.

Also among the treasures destroyed were personal ones stored by hundreds of people in safe deposit boxes in the Chase Bank branch, according to an article in Friday's Wall Street Journal. Two lessons to be learned from this WSJ article: safe deposit boxes may not be able to withstand fire and other kinds of damage, and banks do not insure the contents of safe deposit boxes - that is the customers' responsibility. From family jewelry to personal papers, many irreplaceable items were destroyed, including over 40,000 negatives of President John F. Kennedy belonging to Jacques Lowe, the Kennedy's' personal photographer who died last May. According to the Journal, the negatives were not insured and were worth millions of dollars.