Tagore's handwritten letters fetch ₹5.9 crore at AstaGuru auction

Business Standard

29-06-2025

A set of 35 handwritten letters by Rabindranath Tagore, along with 14 envelopes, was sold for ₹5.9 crore in AstaGuru's recent 'Collectors' Choice' auction, underscoring his undying allure.
AstaGuru said the auction — held on June 26 and 27 — was especially significant as the lot was not a visual artwork but a manuscript-based archive, and yet achieved the second-highest price ever for a Rabindranath creation at auction.
The letters were addressed to sociologist, musicologist and confidant Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji, and dated between 1927 and 1936. Twelve of these letters were written on various letterheads — from Visva-Bharati, his Uttarayan residence, Glen Eden in Darjeeling, and aboard his houseboat, Padma.
'This is not just a literary artefact; it's a self-portrait of the Nobel Laureate in his own words,' said Manoj Mansukhani, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), AstaGuru. 'Their correspondence captures everything from philosophical musings and literary self-defence to aesthetic theory and emotional vulnerability.'
According to Mansukhani, Tagore's letters are rare, though individual ones occasionally surface.
'But a set as extensive, intellectually rich, and emotionally candid as this, comprising 35 handwritten letters and 14 envelopes, is exceptionally uncommon,' he said. 'Also, most of Tagore's important correspondence is held in institutional archives. So offerings like this in the public domain are few and far between.'
The letters were part of a private collection. The provenance has been carefully documented, and several of the letters have been published in major journals and books over the years, Mansukhani added.
Apart from the trove of letters, The Heart — the only known sculpture by Rabindranath Tagore — also went under the virtual hammer at AstaGuru's 'Collectors' Choice' auction.
Believed to be dedicated to Kadambari Devi, the wife of Rabindranath Tagore's brother Jyotirindranath Tagore, the quartzite piece was sold for around ₹1,04,52,210. It dates back to 1883 during a retreat in Karwar, Karnataka, when Tagore was 22.
Tagore's letters and The Heart were among 77 lots offered at the auction. While the letters fetched the highest price, the second-highest was for a work by M F Husain from his Mother Teresa series, which sold for approximately ₹3,80,08,036.