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Private Martin Luther King archive to be auctioned off

Jun 8, 2006, 22:38 GMT

New York - The private archive of the US' most famous civil- rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr, is to be sold to the highest bidder, auction house Sotheby's announced Thursday.

The collection of more than 10,000 manuscripts, books and handwritten documents, much of which has never previously been released to the public, is expected to be sold for between 15 and 30 million dollars.

Sotheby's in New York called the collection the most important US archive of the 20th Century. It is to be auctioned on June 30.

The decision to release the private collection was made by King's family after the passing of the civil-rights campaigner's wife, Coretta Scott King, in January. The family had decided the documents would be better kept at a research institution or museum, Sotheby's said.

The collection chronicles the political activism of King from 1948 up to his assassination in 1968, and includes an early handwritten draft of his famous 'I have a Dream' speech in 1963.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur


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