Tagore's 'heart' fetches Rs 1 cr & letters Rs 5.9 cr

“The Heart”, the only known sculptural piece attributed to Rabindranath Tagore , was sold for Rs 1.04 crore at a Kolkata auction on Friday. Its estimated price was between Rs 55 lakh and Rs 70 lakh. According to auction house AstaGuru 's "Collectors' Choice", the sculpture is believed to have been dedicated to Kadambari Devi, wife of Tagore's brother Jyotirindranath.

At the same auction, a set of 35 handwritten letters and 14 envelopes sent by Tagore to sociologist Dhurjati Prasad Mukerji between 1927 and 1936, fetched Rs 5.9 crore. The estimated bidding price of the set was between Rs 5 crore and Rs 7 crore.

Tagore was only 22 when he sculpted 'The Heart' in 1883 during a contemplative retreat in the coastal town of Karwar in Karnataka in the company of his brother Satyendranath and sister-in-law Jnanadanandini Devi. On it, he engraved in Bengali - "Having cut my heart of stone, I have engraved (the words) with my own hand. Will it be ever effaced by the flow of tears?"

"Any piece by Tagore, be it a sculpture or a letter, is priceless. It does't surprise me that they fetched a high value. Though it is the prerogative of the owner to decide where they want to keep it, I would personally love to see them in museums. People should be able to read letters by Tagore or see a piece sculpted by him. Though I belong to the family, I believe Tagore belongs to humanity," said Sumanto Chattopadhyay, great-great-grandson of Satyendranath.