CAROLINE KENNEDY is staging the ultimate “yard-sale”. She is clearing out paintings, furniture, horseriding gear and a mysterious photograph of a nude woman by a swimming pool from the attics and cupboards of several family homes.

President John F. Kennedy’s daughter is putting 600 items on the auction block at Sotheby’s in New York in February. The estimates are low enough to allow the public to own a piece of Camelot, if they are prepared to compete.

The last such Kennedy sale in 1996 raised seven times its estimate.

Ms Kennedy decided to hold a new sale as part of a housecleaning after her brother, John, died in a aircraft crash with his wife and sister-in-law off the island of Martha’s Vineyard in 1999.

“After my mother died in 1994, my brother and I were faced with the task of deciding what to do with her possessions, and after careful consideration, we sold some of them in 1996,” Ms Kennedy writes in the catalogue.

“In the intervening years and (following) the death of my brother, I found myself again with more houses and belongings than I could possibly use or enjoy.” Sotheby’s is hoping that the public’s fascination with the American dynasty is still as strong as the frenzied family sale after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s death.

Demand at that time was so strong that 30,000 people swarmed into the saleroom to view the memorabilia and the sale raised $34.5 million, rather than the predicted $5 million, including $2.5 million alone for the engagement ring she received from Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.

The auction house has placed a conservative estimate of just over $1 million (£520,000) on the latest sale of Kennedy cast-offs, but acknowledges that fans of the famous family might again drive prices up to unpredictable levels.

“We have placed estimates which are based on the intrinsic value of these objects, which is what we try to do in these situations,” David Redden, Sotheby’s vice-chairman, said. “We do not try to second-guess what is going to happen in the room.”

The art, furniture, jewellery and bric-a-brac comes from five of the family’s homes, including the beach-front Kennedy compound in Hyannisport, Massachusetts, which served as President Kennedy’s “summer White House”.

Among the collection is a photograph of a naked woman running away from the camera by a swimming pool.

Undated and described simply as “Photograph of Nude Woman by a Pool” by an unknown photographer the black-and-white image bears some resemblance to the former First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The family insist that the picture is not a revealing nude portrait of “Jackie O” — although the auction house cannot say who the naked figure is. Its estimate is $100-$150.

“We have asked the family. They have answered that it’s certainly not a member of the family,” Mr Redden said. “We are researching the artist who took it.”

The Hyannisport lots include an early 19th-century painting of a sea captain attributed to Frederick Mayhem, which hung behind President Kennedy when he had an official portrait taken in the summer of 1960. The iconic photograph, with the painting in the background, later appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

Also on sale is a so-called “Kennedy” Rocker — one of the rocking chairs that Mr Kennedy kept in all his homes, on doctor’s advice, to help to ease his severe back pain. The “turned oak and brown-painted rocking armchair”, made in North Carolina, is valued at $4,000- $6,000.

The most valuable items are a highly decorated gold-and-enamel Fabergé picture frame, estimated at $15,000-$20,000, and a Khmer sandstone torso, which is worth an estimated $40,000-$60,000.

A 1910-1911 oil painting by the British artist Augustus John, Portrait of the Artist’s Wife Dorelia Before a Banner, from the Martha’s Vineyard house, carries a presale estimate of $20,000-$30,000.

Some knick-knacks can be had for a fraction of those prices: a dozen horse bits for $50-$75; or a cotton horse blanket, estimated at $100-$150. A rusty pitchfork is valued at as much as $200.

The only lot known with certainty to have come from Mrs Kennedy’s brother, John, is an original painted celluloid frame from the classic cartoon film 101 Dalmatians, given to him by Walt Disney. It is inscribed: “To John Jr. All the Best Wishes, Walt Disney.”

• A unique portrait of Abraham Lincoln was sold at auction at Bonhams & Butterfields in Los Angeles for a record $85,000 (£44,000). A copy of the Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s farewell address to his troops went for $70,000 (£36,000).

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