Historic Examiner photographs documenting figures such as Gen. George S. Patton and a young Howard Hughes have recently surfaced on eBay.

The photos were posted by Leland’s, a Boston-based auction house that purchased the photos in March 2006.

In April 2006, The Examiner donated a number of archival photos and items to UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library. The collection sold to Leland’s was separate from that donation.

The donated Examiner archives, which date back to 1888 and feature contributions from Mark Twain and Jack London, include 850 leather-bound volumes filled with newspaper clippings, along with prints and negatives dating from 1919 to the mid-1990s.

Examiner Chief Financial Officer Pat Brown said the archive set was appraised at $9,569,000.

On Monday, a neighborhood newspaper published a front-page story raising suspicions about the legitimacy of the eBay sales.