The auctioneers stated Friday that the planned auction of the key to the prison cell where South Africa’s first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was once incarcerated had been postponed.
The key to Mandela’s Robben Island prison cell, where he spent 18 of his 27 years in detention, was set to go to the hammer on January 28 by Guernsey’s, a US auction house.
The auction has been postponed until further notice “pending a review” by the South African Heritage Resource Agency, according to Guernsey’s website.
“Not because they suspected anything was stolen,” Guernsey’s president Arlan Ettinger told AFP by phone, “but because things departed South Africa without essential licences.”
Nathi Mthethwa, the Minister of Arts and Culture, praised the auction house for deciding to halt the auction.
“The key symbolises South Africa’s sad history while also reflecting the triumph of the human spirit over evil,” according to the ministry in a statement.
An renowned “Madiba” shirt, spectacles, and ceremonial pens were among the artefacts up for auction, along with the key.
The money was supposed to go towards constructing a Mandela Memorial Garden in his hometown, where he is buried.
One of Mandela’s children contacted Ettinger about auctioning the mementos, including the key, and he agreed.
According to Ettinger, Brand “sent it back to the authorities on the main land,… but it was returned to him, and he put it in a drawer and it stayed there for 30 years until he was contacted by a museum that was assembling things relating to Mandela,” and Brand “was very generous to give up this possession to help build the garden.”
The auctioneers stated that they had followed the government’s instructions.
The Mandela family did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
In May 1994, Mandela was chosen as the country’s first democratically elected president, and he governed until June 1999.
In December of that year, he passed away at the age of 95.
