Anne Frank's Copy of "Grimm's Fairy Tales" Comes to Auction at Swann Galleries
New York— On Thursday, May 5, Swann Galleries will hold an auction of Autographs, featuring Anne Frank's copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales (Aus Grimms Märchen), in which the young diarist wrote her own name as well as her sister Margot’s.
The sale represents the first major offering of Anne Frank autograph material at auction in over two decades, and the discovery of the book is an intriguing tale. The book was left behind in the Frank’s Amsterdam apartment when the family’s departure to the famed secret annex was hastened after Margot was called to relocate to a work camp.
The book eventually made its way to a secondhand bookstore in Amsterdam’s Runstraat, where a Dutch couple purchased it not long after the war. In 1977, the couple’s children discovered the signature and wrote Anne's father, Otto Frank, the family’s sole survivor, to let him know of the discovery. In a poignant letter, which will be up for auction alongside the book, Otto expressed how deeply the discovery of the book affected him, as well as his wish that the family keep the book for their own daughter.
While her now-famous diary shows Anne as a young girl wise beyond her years, this book is a poignant reminder of her innocence and youth prior to her time in hiding and untimely death in a concentration camp. The book, along with Otto Frank’s letter and several news clippings related to its discovery, is estimated at $20,000 to $30,000.
Image courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries.
