Did the US government sell German artillery to private citizens in 1919

I came across this video about US government war bond sales in World War I and how that included sales of German Pickelhaube helmets.

Double click to enlarge.

There was a throw-away line in the voice-over that seemed to indicate that the US government also sold captured German artillery to US citizens after WWI.

Interesting.  President Biden occasionally and persistently advances the notion that the Second Amendment is substantially more limited than most interpret it by arguing that citizens could not own cannon when the amendment was passed.  

That is untrue and has been repeatedly disproven.  Regrettably, however, sometimes, untruths are just too convenient to stop telling them.  

I have known that this was untrue for a long time. The second amendment has been variously, and occasionally expansively, interpreted over the years.  But this video was the first time I encountered the idea that the US government might have sold artillery to private citizens in the modern era,

Researching a little, I come across this blog post Victory Way by Robert Koch.

The end of World War I saw America emerge as a global superpower, and there is possibly no greater representation of this than Victory Way. Victory Way was an art exhibit created by the U.S. government in 1919, a few short months after the end of the First World War, lining Park Avenue outside the main entrance to Grand Central Station in Manhattan. The imposing art exhibition, featuring several German weapons and pieces of equipment, was an unignorable presence outside of the busy station. Originally erected as a way to pay back debts from the war, Victory Way’s legacy has become that of American military strength and the United States becoming an unquestionable world power at the end of World War I. While the installation was only present throughout 1919, being taken down later that year, its legacy and purpose have survived into today.

Victory Way was a grand gesture of American power. Pictured below from different angles, the exhibit took up several blocks of Park Avenue, one of New York’s busiest streets. Various pieces of traditional Americana lined the street, such as statues of eagles, ticker tape and banners colored after the American flag, statues of Lady Liberty modelled after the Statue of Liberty itself, and several decorations patterned with patriotic stars. The middle of the road has the main pieces that make up the exhibit. Several captured German weapons line the street, including disabled artillery cannons, unloaded German rifles, and disabled grenades, all organized in orderly bunches. The main part of the exhibit, however, are the German helmets. A handful of pyramids on the street displayed captured German soldier helmets, approximately 12,000 in all, all stacked in order upon the pyramid-shaped bases. As pictured below, the whole area makes quite an impression upon a viewer, but it is also important in the history of New York, as well as the history of America as a whole, as a representative moment in time.

[snip]

In order to pay for this war effort, war bonds were used the same way they were in previous wars and would be used in wars to follow. War bonds act as a system of debt for the respective government at war; some cash amount is directly paid to the government by a civilian in order to immediately fund the war effort, and then the civilian is promised some sort of extra compensation once the war has concluded and the country’s economy is back in a proper state. This is often done through loans, as many American war bonds throughout history have promised a better return on investment for the amount given once peace is achieved. Victory Way, however, was different.

 Here's where it gets interesting.

Victory Way is a rare example of war bonds being more immediate in nature. How the system worked was that the United States government was, in a sense, selling captured equipment to the highest bidder. The captured German weaponry and helmets were sold through auctions and other means in order to pay back the war debt. Some of the smaller equipment, such as a certain number of helmets and rifles, were sold directly via government merchants stationed near the art exhibit, while the more valuable equipment, such as the artillery pieces and larger batches of supplies, were reserved solely for special auctions held by the U.S. Army. The selling of the equipment was ultimately a success, likely due in no small part to the highly trafficked area that the installation was set up in, as most of the exhibit was sold by the time it was taken down in late 1919, with the leftovers then being sold to private parties via requests. While this is a fascinating piece of American history in and of itself, the symbolism behind Victory Way has taken on a legacy of its own that eclipses its purpose of paying debt.

I can't quite nail down the particulars but it does appear that the US government might have been selling German artillery to private bidders in 1919 as part of its efforts to cover the expenses of World War I.