A drawing by late South African president Nelson Mandela of the door of his prison cell on Robben Island — where he was held for 18 years — sold on Thursday in New York for $112,575.
“The Cell Door, Robben Island” — completed in 2002 by the Nobel peace laureate — exceeded the top end of the estimated range provided by Bonhams, which put its value at $60,000 to $90,000.
The wax pastel crayon drawing shows a few bars of the cell door and a key in the lock, sketched in purple.
The work is one of the few that Mandela — who was jailed for 27 years in total and inspired the struggle against apartheid — kept until his death in 2013. Read more