A wax pastel crayon drawing by the late South African president Nelson Mandela of the door of his prison cell on Robben Island is set to be put up for auction on May 2 in New York.
The drawing is sketched in purple and shows a few bars of the cell door and a key in the lock.
The value of the drawing titled “The Cell Door, Robben Island” has been put at $60,000 to $90,000.
The work, completed in 2002, is one of the few that Mandela kept until his death in 2013.
Mandela embraced art as a hobby after leaving South Africa’s presidency in 1999.
Mandela’s daughter, Pumla Makaziwe, was in possession of the work.
The work will be part of a sale of modern and contemporary African art hosted by Bonhams, an auction house.
Bonhams director of modern African art, Giles Peppiatt, notes that this is the first time this work has ever been exhibited in public. Peppiatt adds that it is also the first work by Nelson Mandela ever to be sold in the open market.
Peppiatt says Mandela did about 20 to 25 drawings. Some were reproduced as lithographs to raise money for the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
Mandela, who inspired the struggle against apartheid, was jailed for a total of 27 years, 18 of which were on Robben Island.
