Anne Frank poem sells for nearly $150,000

A rare handwritten poem signed by Anne Frank sold at auction in the Netherlands Wednesday for $148,620.

In a sign of the enduring popularity of the Jewish diarist who became a symbol for Holocaust victims, the sale price, which doesn’t include the auctioneer’s commission, was nearly three times the upper limit of the Dutch auction house’s pre-sale estimate.

The eight-line poem, half of which was copied from a Dutch book of verse, is dated March 28, 1942, shortly before Anne and her family went into hiding from the Netherlands’ wartime Nazi occupiers in a secret apartment in an Amsterdam canal house.

It was sold to an online bidder, whose identity wasn’t released.

The poem was accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the seller, Anne’s former school friend, Jacqueline van Maarsen. The poem is addressed to Van Maarsen’s late sister, Christiane.

Jacqueline van Maarsen also has a poem written by Anne that was addressed to her.