A letter from Christopher Columbus in which he announces the “discovery” of America is expected to fetch up to £1.2m ($1.5m) at an auction.
The Italian explorer penned the letter after returning to Europe following his voyage to North America in 1493.
“I sailed to the Indies with the fleet that the illustrious King and Queen, our sovereigns, gave me, where I discovered a great many islands, inhabited by numberless people,” he wrote to royal treasurer Luis de Santángel. “Of all, I have taken possession for their Highnesses.”
The boastful missive could attract bids as high as £1.2m when it goes on sale at a Christie’s auction this month, The Guardian reports.
Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a Columbus biographer, said the events described in the letter were “the first report of a voyage that really did change the world”.
“[In current times] Columbus has lost his former status as an honorary all-American hero and quasi-founding father, but notoriety rarely hurts one’s market value, especially in the US. Witness Donald Trump,” Fernandez-Armesto added.
The letter praises the rich natural assets of the islands Columbus visited.
Historians now view the document as a piece of propaganda that helped kickstart the European colonisation of the New World.
The letter, which has been held in a private Swiss collection for nearly a century, has been described by Christie’s as “the earliest obtainable edition of Columbus’s letter”.
It comes after several statues of the explorer and slaver, thought to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of indigenous people, have been torn down by protesters in the US in recent years.
