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One of just seven copies of a new work by JK Rowling - The Tales of Beedle the Bard – sold at Sotheby’s today for an unprecedented £1,950,000. Created, hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling, the volume of previously untold stories attracted pre-sale interest from all corners of the world. Today, six bidders locked horns in a battle to secure it – the hammer finally falling to a representative from London fine art dealers Hazlitt Gooden and Fox, bidding on behalf of Amazon.com, Inc. Proceeds from the sale will go to The Children's Voice – a campaign run by the Children’s High Level Group, the charity JK Rowling co-founded in 2005 with Emma Nicholson MEP that seeks to make life better for vulnerable children across Europe.

Speaking after the sale, JK Rowling said: “I am stunned and ecstatic. This will mean so much to
children in desperate need of help. Christmas has come early for me.”

Emma Nicholson, MEP, added:“I am delighted with the money raised by the auction of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and profoundly grateful to my co-chair JK Rowling for her generosity in the original gift. The Children’s Voice Campaign relies solely on public donation to fund its work and this fantastic sum of money will make a huge difference to the lives of many vulnerable children.”

Dr. Philip Errington, Deputy Director, Sotheby’s Books and Manuscripts department said:“Sotheby’s has been thrilled to work with JK Rowling and The Children’s Voice in selling this wonderful manuscript. This is one of the most exciting pieces of children’s literature to have passed through
Sotheby’s. We have to reach back 80 years to find a comparison when we sold the manuscript of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland on behalf of the original Alice.”

Containing clues that were to prove crucial to Harry Potter’s final mission to destroy Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes, The Tales of Beedle the Bard is the volume of five wizarding fairy-tales left to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Only one – The Tale of the Three Brothers – is recounted in the book. In Tales of Beedle the Bard, the four remaining tales are revealed for the first time. Bound in brown morocco leather, and mounted with hand-chased silver ornaments and seven moonstones, the volume of five stories is one of just seven individual copies - each quite different from the other - hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling. In a dedication written in the front of the book, she wrote: “Six of these books have been given to those most closely connected to the Harry Potter books during the last 17 years. This seventh copy will be auctioned; the proceeds to help institutionalised children who are in desperate need of a voice. So to whoever now owns this book, thank you – and fair fortune be yours!”

The proceeds from the sale of the manuscript will enable The Children’s Voice to transform the
lives of thousands of vulnerable children. It campaigns for child rights across Europe – particularly Eastern Europe – where over a million children and teenagers are growing up in institutions, often in unacceptable conditions. In most cases these children are without adequate human or emotional contact and stimulation, while many only just survive without life’s basics such as adequate shelter and food. One of the campaign’s central aims is to move children out of institutions and into loving families, by building systems to ensure parents can care for their own children and by improving national fostering and adoption programmes for children who are separated from their families.

A limited edition commemorative booklet, giving glimpses of the contents of The Tales of Beedle
the Bard, is still available from Sotheby’s. It can be ordered online at www.sothebys.com or by
calling +44 207 293 6444. Copies will also be available at Sotheby’s galleries in London and
New York. The catalogue will be priced at £8 by mail order and £6 in the galleries. All profits
from its sale will also be donated to The Children’s Voice.

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For more details visit Sothebys