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Christopher Reeve’s high-tech wheelchair has rolled into the middle of a bitter dispute between the tragic “Superman” star’s family and the Smithsonian Institution.
Deborah Morosini, the sister of Reeve’s late wife, Dana, told Howard Stern’s Sirius radio show she had graciously offered the beloved actor’s chair to the Smithsonian so his gallant struggle to survive against the odds will be remembered for generations. But the deal fell through when the organization said thanks, but no thanks.
Katherine Ott, a curator at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., which is run by the Smithsonian, confirmed to The Post’s Marianne Garvey that officials wanted much more than the wheelchair. She said the museum wants an entire collection of Reeve’s possessions - but once the family learned of the demand, they cut off the contract.
“We want more than the wheelchair,” Ott said. “We need the whole history of his experience, not just one piece. We want the fuller story, not just the chair. What if people look at only the chair 50 years from now? It won’t tell the whole story.”
Among other items requested were Reeve’s medications, his exercise equipment, a special bike he used, a tiltboard, literature he collected and letters he wrote about his condition. “We made a list and we never heard back,” Ott said.
The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation is not impressed. A rep for the nonprofit group that funds research for spinal cord injuries said the family desperately wanted the wheelchair to be seen by his fans and those interested in the plight of the physically disabled.
“Obviously, Christopher has been the most visible person with a spinal cord injury, so we want the American public to see that,” foundation rep Maggie Goldberg said.
As of now, the chair, which Reeve used after he was paralyzed from the neck down in a 1995 horse-jumping mishap, will remain in the lobby of the foundation’s headquarters in Short Hills, N.J. Christopher Reeve died in 2004, and Dana died of lung cancer a little more than a year ago.
(via Page Six)
