Mandela's eldest daughter put his ID card, shirts and a Robben Island key up for auction in New York, and the state fought the sale to the Constitutional Court

Nelson Mandela died in 2013, aged 95. He had spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island. In 2021 Guernsey's, a New York auction house, announced a sale of his belongings. The items included his identity card, shirts, aviator sunglasses, walking sticks, a signed copy of the first post-apartheid constitution, gifts from American presidents and a key from Robben Island prison. His eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela, co-owned the items with Christo Brand, a former warder. She said the money would build a memorial garden near his grave at Qunu. The South African Heritage Resources Agency said the items were national heritage exported without permission. The 2022 sale was halted. The Pretoria High Court ruled for Makaziwe. On 23 January 2026 the Supreme Court of Appeal, by four judges to one, let the sale proceed. Makaziwe said she was "confounded by the motivation for launching this marathon legal battle." The agency took 29 objects to the Constitutional Court, which heard the case in September 2026. The key had been displayed as the "Robben Island master key" and is expected to fetch about R21 million. Brand's counsel told the court it was handmade and had nothing to do with Mandela, and accepted that the public had been misled, saying Brand took no part in that. Judgment is reserved.