“The Heart”, the only known sculpture piece responsible for Rabindranath Tagore, was sold for Rs 1.04 crore in Kolkata auction on Friday. Its estimated price was between Rs 55 lakh and Rs 70 lakh. According to the “choice of collectors” of the auction house Estaguru, it is believed that it is dedicated to Kadambari Devi, wife of Tagore’s brother Jyotirindranath.At the same auction, a set of 35 handwritten letters and 14 envelopes which were sent by Tagore to Sociologist Dhurjati Prasad Mukherjee between 1927 and 1936, gave Rs 5.9 crore. The estimated bid price of the set was between Rs 5 crore and Rs 7 crore.Tagore was only 22 years old when he coined ‘The Heart’ in 1883 during a reflective retreat in the coastal city of Karnataka at the company of his brother Satyendranath and Bhabhi Gyanadanandini Devi. At this, he engraved in Bengali – “After cutting my heart, I have engraved (words) with my hand. Will it ever be affected by the flow of tears?”“Any piece by Tagore, it’s a sculpture or a letter, is precious. It doesn’t surprise me that they have received a high value. However it is the owner’s privilege to decide where they want to put it, I will personally like to see them in museums. People should be able to read the letter by Tagore or I feel that I think that I am related.” Chattopadhyay, the great grandson of Satyendranath.
