Auction gem: handwritten love letters

To get in the mood for Valentine's Day, MASTERS is highlighting a special collection of 42 handwritten love letters in the "Auction Pearl of the Week. The sender? None other than American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan.

maandag 13 februari 2023
16:05
By: Fleur De Jong

Back in 2022, the special collection of letters disappeared under the RR Auction hammer. The artist sent the letters to his High School Sweetheart Barbara Ann Hewitt. The two were at school together in Hibbing, Minnesota. Altogether, the collection contains 150 pages of handwritten text.

Reading the letters is like stepping into a time machine. In fact, the love letters were written between 1957 and 1959. Among other things, it reveals the clothing trends of the time, which car brands were popular and the music Bob Dylan himself was listening to at the time. The artist also shares how at the time he was already planning to use his name - then called Robert Allen Zimmerman - change, his ambitions to start selling millions of records and how he was preparing for a local talent show.

Sweet price

Of course, Bob Dylan also declares love to Hewitt in the letters. The auctioned collection even included a valentine.

The love letters were found in 2020, after Hewitt's death, by her daughter. In the end, a Portuguese bookstore in Porto paid converted €650,000 for this auction gem.