Paris-based auction house Ader Nordmann on Wednesday said the original contract signed by Karl Marx for the publication of the French version of "Capital" was sold on Tuesday for 121,600 euros (138,300 U.S. dollars).
Estimated between 20,000 and 25,000 euros, the original contract of "Capital", signed in 1872 with Marx's French publisher Maurice Lachatre, stated that the author required that the edition of his book "should be expressly in a form and at a price that would make it available to those of the smallest means."
Also sold were 19 hand-written letters from Marx and two letters from Friedrich Engels at the price from 32,000 to 160,000 euros. Dating mainly from 1872, the estimated values of the individual letters range from 2,500 to 30,000 euros.
These letters confirm that "the first chapter of the French version of Capital, which turns out to be the founding text of Marxism, has been entirely translated and written by Karl Marx himself," said Thierry Bodin, an expert in autographs and manuscripts.
"These historical documents" were conserved by descendants of Lachatre, Bodin added.
