Anne Frank's copy of 'Grimm's Fairy Tales' brings more than $62K at auction

WHAT: A coverless German language copy of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” bearing the inked names of Anne and Margot Frank sold recently for $62,500 at Swann Galleries in New York.

MORE: Estimated pre-sale at $20,000 to 30,000, the book, published in 1925 Vienna, is inscribed with both girls’ names by Anne. Margot’s ink owner’s stamp is on the inside. It sold with a letter from their father Otto Frank, who had gifted the book to a friend.

SMART COLLECTORS KNOW: Anne and Margot Frank’s copy of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” soared because the artifact is a testament to Anne’s lasting legacy. Her diary account (dated 1942 to 1944) relating her life while hiding from Nazi occupation in the Netherlands has been published in more than 60 languages and has inspired generations.

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HOT TIP: Rescued from the annex where the Frank family hid in Amsterdam, Anne’s diary was first published in Dutch in 1947. The copyright to that version expired on 1/1/16. As a result, the original Dutch version became available online.

BOTTOM LINE: Anne and Margot Frank died in 1945, probably of typhus, in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp weeks before the camp was liberated.