The South African Heritage Resources Agency is seeking to prevent an auction of dozens of Nelson Mandela’s personal belongings, saying on Thursday that it has filed court papers to appeal a ruling that had allowed the sale of the items to go forward.
Guernsey’s auction house in New York said this week that it planned to auction about 70 of Mr. Mandela’s items on Feb. 22 as part of a fund-raising effort to support the establishment of a memorial garden near where Mr. Mandela, the former South African president, is buried.
South African officials had blocked an earlier effort to sell the items on the grounds that some of them are objects of national heritage.
But the organizers of the planned sale, led by Mr. Mandela’s oldest daughter, Dr. Makaziwe Mandela, won a court judgment last month.
In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the High Court in Pretoria found that the government’s claim to the items as heritage objects was “overbroad.”
Persons:
Nelson, Mandela, Mandela’s, Makaziwe Mandela, ”
Organizations:
African Heritage Resources Agency, South
Locations:
New York, Pretoria