Rabindranath Tagore's handwritten letter sells at Rs 11.13 lakh

A handwritten letter by Rabindranath Tagore, where he expressed his gratitude after receiving birthday greetings, has been sold at Rs 11.13 lakh, nearly three times the estimated price, at an online auction earlier this week.

The letter, written in red ink, ends with the poet's signature drawing, making it a national art treasure. The letter was written on 6 Jaistho, 1345, as per the Bengali calendar, three years before his death in 1941. Tagore was born on 25 Baisakh, in the first month of the Bengali calendar.

In Bengali custom, celebratory messages were generally written in red ink.


This artefact was received from a collection based in north India, AstaGuru Auction House, which organised the sale.

“Given the stature of Rabindranath Tagore, every offering, whether it is his painting, poem, or letter makes for a rare gem. So, it is not surprising that this rare piece was acquired at a price three times above the original higher estimate," said Sunny Chandiramani, senior vice president at AstaGuru.

"As the first Indian and Asian Nobel laureate, Tagore's correspondence holds immense significance, sought after by collectors who recognize the value of a tangible link to a literary giant and a piece of literary history," she said.

Initially projected to be acquired at an estimated value of Rs 3-4 lakh, the letter ultimately sold at auction for a remarkable 11,12,951, following intense bidding by numerous collectors.

The event took place on December 11 and 12 online where a total of 204 artworks by Indian modernists such as Manjit Bawa, FN Souza, NS Bendre, Ram Kumar and MF Hussain were auctioned off for Rs 73 crore cumulatively.

Paintings by Bengal school visionary Nandalal Bose and the likes of Ganesh Pyne, Bikah Bhattacharjee, Jogen Chowdhury and Somnath Hore were also auctioned.

This was the fifth handwritten letter by Tagore auctioned by AstaGuru for a cumulative Rs 58.3 lakh.

The highest price Astaguru received for Tagore's letter was Rs 21.1 lakh in June where Asia's first Nobel winner expressed reservations against translating his short stories in English. In the letter written in 1930 and addressed to Satyabhushan Sen, Tagore said the style of his writing was vastly different from the style adopted by English writers of his time and, therefore, readers would not be able to appreciate translations of his stories.