Callas Memorabilia Sold at Auction

Fans of Maria Callas came to a French auction that took them backstage into the great opera diva’s private life 23 years after her death. Callas’ good luck charm--a painting of the holy family she demanded be in her dressing room for performances--fetched $120,643 from an anonymous European collector Saturday, the first day of the two-day sale of her belongings in the packed Drouot-Montaigne auction house in Paris. Callas, who was born in New York of Greek parentage, died in her Paris apartment at the age of 53 in 1977, reportedly of a heart attack.