Conan Doyle papers sold

Thousands of personal papers belonging to Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, fetched $1.7 million at an auction in London this week, with many items sold to private U.S. collectors.

Christie’s Auction House had expected the archive of letters, notes and handwritten manuscripts to raise more than twice that amount. Of the 135 lots on offer, 31 failed to meet their reserve price and remained unsold.

The auction, approved by heirs of the author’s daughter-in-law, was a great disappointment to scholars who had hoped the papers would be donated to a public institution. “If this was Jane Austen or Charles Dickens, there would be a national outcry,” Sir Christopher Frayling, head of the Arts Council, told BBC Radio.