Rosa Parks artefacts sold for $4.5 million to Buffett son

A foundation controlled by the son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett has paid $4.5 million for hundreds of artefacts belonging to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, a lawyer for Parks' heirs said on Friday.

The artefacts, which include Parks' Presidential Medal of Freedom and a postcard signed by Martin Luther King Jr, were purchased by the Howard G Buffett Foundation on Aug 20, said Detroit-area attorney Lawrence Pepper.

Personal papers, notes, letters from presidents, and various awards and honorary doctorates were also among the articles, said Pepper.

"For lack of a better term, she was a pack rat," said Arlan Ettinger, president of Guernsey's auction house in New York, where most of the material was stored.

"She had retained many things from her long and rich life."

The foundation was not immediately available for comment.

Ettinger said Buffett was not interested in acquiring the collection for himself, but wants to find an appropriate home for it.

Parks, who died in 2005, became a symbol of the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.

She later moved to Detroit and worked for Democratic US Representative John Conyers.