Anne Frank poem fetches 140,000 euros

AFP, Netherlands: A very rare handwritten poem by Jewish diarist Anne Frank was sold for 140,000 euros to an unnamed online bidder Wednesday, fetching almost three times its reserve price.
Auctioneers closed the sale after just two minutes of tense bidding at the Bubb Kuyper auction house in the western Dutch city of Haarlem.
Around 20 collectors took their seats in a sales room decorated with antique books, maps and illustrations while others bid by telephone and online.
The reserve price was set at 30,000 euros ($31,000).
“Over the last 40 years, only four or five documents signed by the teenager have gone under the hammer,” Bubb Kuyper co-director Thys Blankevoort said.
“I am pleasantly surprised. I wasn’t expecting 140,000,” he told AFP after the sale.
“It indicates the emotion with which people buy (these pieces) and the symbol that Anne Frank was,” he said.
Dedicated to “Dear Cri-cri,” the poem, written in Dutch in black ink on a notebook-size piece of white paper which has slightly discoloured with age, is signed “in memory, from Anne Frank.”
The final four lines read: “Others have criticised you for what thou hast done wrong, make sure that you make it better, that’s the answer”.

Anne Frank poem fetches 140,000 euros

AFP, Netherlands: A very rare handwritten poem by Jewish diarist Anne Frank was sold for 140,000 euros to an unnamed online bidder Wednesday, fetching almost three times its reserve price. Auctioneers closed the sale after just two minutes of tense bidding at the Bubb Kuyper auction house in the western Dutch city of Haarlem. Around 20 collectors took their seats in a sales room decorated with antique books, maps and illustrations while others bid by telephone and online. The reserve price was set at 30,000 euros ($31,000). Over the last 40 years, only four or five documents signed by the teenager have gone under the hammer, Bubb Kuyper co-director Thys Blankevoort said. I am pleasantly surprised. I wasnt expecting 140,000, he told AFP after the sale. It indicates the emotion with which people buy (these pieces) and the symbol that Anne Frank was, he said. Dedicated to Dear Cri-cri, the poem, written in Dutch in black ink on a notebook-size piece of white paper which has slightly discoloured with age, is signed in memory, from Anne Frank. The final four lines read: Others have criticised you for what thou hast done wrong, make sure that you make it better, thats the answer.