All of the lots were sold at the auction, even the eleven that were listed by the Cultural Heritage Protection Office. A hand-written copy of a poem by János Arany went for HUF 11 million.
A letter written by Gáspár Károli, who made the first complete translation of the Bible into Hungarian, sold for HUF 8 million. The letter was the first sample of Károli's handwriting ever offered at auction.
Endre Ady's eight-page hand-written copy of the Red and Black collection of essays fetched HUF 8 million, well over the starting price of HUF 5 million.
Among the foreign offerings at the auction were a letter written by Voltaire to the Marquis de Boufflers that went for HUF 2.5 million and a letter written by Baudelaire to Armand Dutacq that sold for HUF 2.5 million. An original copy of Newton's Principia - never before auctioned in Hungary - sold for HUF 2.2 million.
Among the other books on offer was a five-volume 1842 edition of Byron's works, signed and presented as a gift by János Arany to Pál Gyulay. The set went for HUF 1 million, well over its starting price of HUF 400,000. A copy of Ortelius's 1665 chronicle, rich in illustrations of Hungarian cities and historical figures was taken for HUF 1.6 million.
The Hungarian painter Vilmos Aba-Novák's album Twenty-one Pictures, which appeared in a print run of just 250 copies in 1932, sold for HUF 280,000, more than ten times its starting price.
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
