Nazım Hikmet’s personal belongings auctioned online

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

The great Turkish poet and writer Nazım Hikmet’s personal belongings, which he collected or made in prison, are being sold online by an auction house. The belongings were found in garbage by waste pickers. 

Nazım Hikmet’s close friend Kemal Sülker, with whom he wrote letters while serving his prison sentence, had donated some part of the collection to a private school in Istanbul after keeping them for many years. 

After a classification in the school’s library, some part of the collection went to the SEKA paper factory, some to collectors and some to waste. The collection was then found by waste pickers and received by Ata Auction House. 

Among the pieces to be sold are his handwritten poetry titled “Nikbinlik,” notes he wrote to his wife Piraye, a silk scarf, a hand-made necklace, his necktie, a painting and some other items. 

The auction also sells many other items such as a photo showing the transportation of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s coffin to his mausoleum from the Ethnography Museum in Ankara during his funeral, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s first-printed book “The Time Regulation Institute” with wet signature and a painting by Fikret Mualla. 

Ata Auction House official Hande Ketenci said one of the most important pieces in the auction was Nazım Hikmet’s pieces. 

She said the archive had changed hands throughout the years, but they finally got the pieces from waste pickers, adding that his poetry “Nikbinlik” was one of the highlights of the collection. 

Turkey’s former President Süleyman Demirel’s famous hat was also one of the auction items, Ketenci said. The online auction, which started on June 14, will end on June 23 at 11 p.m. 

The auction can be reached at www.atamuzayede.com.